Item 1. Business
Company Overview
Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (“Spectrum,” the “Company,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) is a biopharmaceutical company, with a primary strategy comprised of acquiring, developing, and commercializing novel and targeted oncology therapies. Our in-house development organization includes clinical development, regulatory, quality and data management.
We have two drugs in late-stage development:
•Eflapegrastim, a novel long-acting granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (“G-CSF”) for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. On August 6, 2021, we announced the receipt of a complete response letter (“CRL”), that cited manufacturing deficiencies related both to the drug substance and drug product manufacturers. We believe we have completed the remediation of these deficiencies and resubmitted the BLA on March 11, 2022;
•Poziotinib, a novel irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor under investigation for non-small cell lung cancer (“NSCLC”) tumors with various mutations. On December 6, 2021, we announced we submitted our New Drug Application (“NDA”) for poziotinib to the FDA for use in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. The NDA submission is based on the positive results of Cohort 2 from the ZENITH20 clinical trial, which assessed the safety and efficacy of poziotinib. The product has received Fast Track designation and there is currently no treatment specifically approved by the FDA for this indication. On February 11, 2022, we announced that we had received notice that the NDA had been accepted and received a Prescription Drug User Fee Act (“PDUFA”) action date of November 24, 2022.
Cancer Background and Market Size
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled growth and spread of abnormal cells, which can result in death. The development of cancer is multi-factorial and includes both external factors (tobacco, infectious organisms, chemicals, and radiation) and internal factors (inherited mutations, hormones, immune conditions, and mutations that occur from exposure to environmental factors or errors in making DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) during normal cell division). These causal factors may act together or in sequence to initiate or promote the development of cancer. Ten or more years often pass between exposure to these factors and the development of detectable cancer. Cancer is treated through surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, immunotherapy, and/or targeted drug therapy.
According to the American Cancer Society’s publication Cancer Facts & Figures 2021, cancer is the second leading cause of death in the U.S. (only behind heart disease). In the U.S., approximately 1.9 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2021 and approximately 608,570 persons were expected to die from the disease. Anyone can develop cancer. Since the risk of being diagnosed with cancer increases with age, most cases occur in adults who are middle aged or older. About 80% of all cancers are diagnosed in people 55 years of age or older. In the U.S., approximately 41 out of 100 men and 39 out of 100 women will develop cancer during their lifetime. These probabilities are estimated based on the overall experience of the general population. Individuals within the population may have higher or lower risk because of differences in exposures (e.g., smoking), and/or genetic susceptibility. In addition, currently available treatments are variably effective for different
cancers and individual patients. Together these patients’ risks and the treatment limitations suggest a significant current and long-term demand for improved and novel cancer treatments.
Product Portfolio
Our product portfolio consists of in-development drug products for the treatment of cancer patients. Serious adverse effects (“SAEs”) in patients from these products could result in the refusal/removal of regulatory approval and have a negative impact on future sales. See our specific SAE risk factor within Item 1A. Risk Factors – Risks Related to Our Business --Reports of adverse events or safety concerns involving our in-development products or similar agents, could delay or prevent us from obtaining or maintaining regulatory approval or negatively impact sales.
Product Pipeline
Eflapegrastim
Eflapegrastim (previously referred to as “ROLONTIS”) is a novel long-acting G-CSF that employs a proprietary LAPSCOVERY™ technology to enhance the duration of therapeutic effects and reduce the frequency of administration. Eflapegrastim is being investigated for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia. In January 2012, we entered into a co-development and commercialization agreement with Hanmi Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. (“Hanmi”) for eflapegrastim worldwide rights, except in Korea, China, and Japan.
Chemotherapy can cause myelosuppression that can lead to neutropenia, a condition where the number of neutrophils or white blood cells are too low, which can lead to infection, hospitalization, and even death. G-CSF stimulates the production of white blood cells by the bone marrow. A recombinant form of G-CSF is used in appropriate cancer patients to accelerate recovery from neutropenia after chemotherapy, allowing higher-intensity treatment regimens to be given at full-dosage and on schedule. The U.S. annual market opportunity for long-acting G-CSF-related drugs is currently approximately $2 billion, based on quarterly reported revenue.
We submitted our BLA for eflapegrastim to the FDA on October 24, 2019. Our BLA is supported by data from two similarly designed Phase 3 clinical trials, ADVANCE and RECOVER, which evaluated the safety and efficacy of eflapegrastim in 643 early-stage breast cancer patients for the treatment of neutropenia due to myelosuppressive chemotherapy. Both studies met the pre-specified endpoint of non-inferiority in duration of severe neutropenia and met all of the secondary endpoints. In addition, the safety profile was similar to pegfilgrastim. On August 6, 2021, we announced the receipt of a CRL based on manufacturing deficiencies identified at both the drug substance and drug product manufacturers. The Company believes these manufacturing deficiencies have been remediated and on March 11, 2022, we resubmitted the BLA for eflapegrastim.
A company sponsored clinical trial has been initiated to evaluate the administration of eflapegrastim on the same day as chemotherapy. This Phase 1 clinical trial is a randomized, open label, actively controlled study to evaluate the same-day dosing of eflapegrastim on duration of neutropenia when administered at varying intervals following docetaxel and cyclophosphamide (TC) chemotherapy in patients with early-stage breast cancer. On March 4, 2021, at the virtual 38th Annual Miami Breast Cancer Conference®, the Company presented positive early data showing rapid absolute neutrophil count (ANC) recovery in the first three patients dosed in the 30-minute arm of the same-day dosing. This arm met the prespecified interim safety evaluation criteria and therefore supported the expansion of this arm to 15 patients. The study design included an interim safety evaluation that was conducted once the first three patients in each arm (30 minutes, 3 hours, or 5 hours) completed Cycle 1. Based on this review, the 30-minute arm expanded to a total of 15 patients, while the 3- and 5-hour dosing arms have been discontinued. In the 30-minute dosing arm, ANC recovery was more rapid compared to the 3- and 5-hour arms. ANC nadir was also deeper and longer for the 3- and 5-hour arms compared to the 30-minute arm. The overall safety profile for the 30-minute arm was similar to what has been seen previously in large randomized studies with G-CSF given 24 hours after chemotherapy.
Poziotinib
Poziotinib is a novel, pan-HER inhibitor that irreversibly blocks signaling through the Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) family of tyrosine-kinase receptors, including HER1 (erbB1; EGFR), HER2 (erbB2), HER4 (erbB4), and HER receptor mutations. This, in turn, leads to the inhibition of the proliferation of tumor cells that over-express these receptors. Mutations of over-expression/amplification of EGFR family receptors have been associated with a number of different cancers, including NSCLC, breast cancer, and gastric cancer. In March 2015, we entered into a co-development and commercialization agreement with Hanmi for poziotinib worldwide rights, except in Korea and China.
Our clinical development program for poziotinib is focused on previously treated NSCLC, first-line treatment of NSCLC and treatment of other solid tumors with HER2 mutations. NSCLC tumors with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations are rare and have generally not been responsive to other tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Patients with these mutations have a poor prognosis, and available treatment options are limited. Poziotinib, due to its unique chemical structure and characteristics, is believed to inhibit cell growth of tumors with HER2 exon-20 insertion mutations.
In October 2017, we announced the start of a pivotal Phase 2 global clinical trial with active sites in the U.S., Canada and Europe (“ZENITH20”). The ZENITH20 trial consists of seven cohorts of NSCLC patients. Cohorts 1, 2, 3 and 4 have completed enrollment while Cohorts 5, 6, and 7 are currently enrolling patients. Cohorts 1 (EGFR) and 2 (HER2) include previously treated NSCLC patients with exon 20 mutations. Cohort 3 (EGFR) and 4 (HER2) include first-line NSCLC patients with exon 20 mutations. Cohorts 1- 4 are each independently powered for a pre-specified statistical hypothesis and the primary endpoint is objective response rate (“ORR”). Cohort 5 includes previously treated or treatment-naïve NSCLC patients with EGFR or HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations and is evaluating different dosing regimens. Cohort 6 includes NSCLC patients with classical EGFR mutations who progressed while on treatment with first-line osimertinib and developed an additional EGFR mutation. Cohort 7 includes NSCLC patients with a variety of less common mutations in EGFR or HER2 exons 18-21 or the extracellular or transmembrane domains.
On December 26, 2019, we announced that the pre-specified primary endpoint was not met in Cohort 1 of the ZENITH20 trial evaluating poziotinib in previously treated NSCLC patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations. Cohort 1 enrolled a total of 115 patients who received 16 mg/day of poziotinib. The intent-to-treat analysis showed that 17 patients had a response (by RECIST) and 62 patients had stable disease for a 68.7% disease control rate (“DCR”). The confirmed ORR was 14.8% (95% Confidence Interval (“CI”) 8.9%-22.6%). The median duration of response was 7.4 months and the progression free survival was 4.2 months. The safety profile was in-line with other second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
On July 27, 2020, we announced that we met the pre-specified primary endpoint for Cohort 2 in the ZENITH20 trial evaluating previously treated NSCLC patients with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. Cohort 2 enrolled a total of 90 patients who received an oral, once daily dose of 16 mg of poziotinib. All the patients had failed at least one line of prior systemic therapy with 60 patients (67%) having failed two or more prior therapies, including chemotherapy and immunotherapy. All responses were read independently and confirmed by a central imaging laboratory using RECIST criteria. The intent-to-treat analysis demonstrated a confirmed ORR of 27.8% (95% CI of 18.9%-38.2%). Based on the pre-specified statistical hypothesis for the primary endpoint, the observed lower bound of 18.9% exceeded the pre-specified lower bound of 17% in this heavily pre-treated population. The safety profile was in-line with the type of adverse events seen with other second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. These results were presented at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Virtual Congress 2020 Science Weekend held in September 2020.
In December 2020, we reported that its pre-specified primary endpoint in Cohort 3 evaluating poziotinib in first-line NSCLC patients with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations was not met. Cohort 3 of the ZENITH20 clinical trial enrolled a total of 79 patients who received an oral once daily dose of 16 mg of poziotinib. The median time of follow up of all patients was 9.2 months with 12 ongoing patients still on treatment. The intent-to-treat analysis showed that 22 patients had a partial response (by RECIST) and 68 patients had stable disease for an 86.1% DCR. 91% of patients experienced tumor reduction with a median reduction of 25.5%. The confirmed ORR was 27.8% (95% CI 18.4-39.1%). Based on the pre-specified statistical hypothesis for the primary endpoint, the observed lower bound of 18.4% did not meet the pre-specified lower bound of >20%. The median duration of response was 6.5 months and the median progression free survival was 7.2 months. The safety profile was similar with the type of adverse events observed with other second-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors. Grade 3 treatment related rash was 33% and diarrhea was 23%. 94% of patients had drug interruptions with 6 patients (8%) permanently discontinuing due to adverse events.
In March 2021, we announced that the FDA granted Fast Track designation for Poziotinib based on data from Cohort 2 of ZENITH20, which evaluated previously treated patients with NSCLC with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. On December 6, 2021, we announced the submission of its NDA for poziotinib to the FDA for use in patients with previously treated locally advanced or metastatic NSCLC with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations. The NDA submission is based on the positive results of Cohort 2 from the ZENITH20 clinical trial, which assessed the safety and efficacy of poziotinib. On February 11, 2022, the Company announced that the file had been accepted and an action date of November 24, 2022 had been set.
In March 2022, the Company presented the results of Cohort 4 at the ESMO Targed Anticancer Therapies (“TAT”) meeting. Cohort 4 of the ZENITH20 clinical trial enrolled a total of 70 patients, 48 of whom received an oral once daily dose of 16 mg of poziotinib and 22 of who received an oral twice daily dose of 8 mg of poziotinib. The intent-to-treat analysis demonstrated a confirmed ORR of 41% (95% CI of 30%-54%). Based on the pre-specified statistical hypothesis for the primary endpoint, the observed lower bound of 30% exceeded the pre-specified lower bound of 20%. The median duration of response was 5.7 months and median progression free survival was 5.6 months. The most common treatment related Grade ≥ 3 adverse
events were rash (30%), stomatitis (19%), diarrhea (14%), and paronychia (7%). In addition, the incidence of Grade ≥ 3 pneumonitis was low at 3%. The safety profile was consistent with the TKI class.
Manufacturing
We currently do not have internal manufacturing capabilities. All of our products are/were manufactured by third parties that specialize in these services. We expect to continue to contract with third-parties for our manufacturing and packaging requirements, including active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and finished-dosage products. We believe that our current agreements provide sufficient capacity to support our clinical requirements and the anticipated commercial demand for our products. Where feasible, we maintain secondary supplier sources for our drug products to mitigate the risk of over-reliance on any single supplier. We attempt to prevent supply disruption through our executed supply agreements, appropriate forecasting, and maintaining base stock levels.
Competition
The pharmaceutical industry is characterized by rapidly-evolving technology and intense competition, which we expect to persist. Many companies are engaged in research and development of compounds that are similar to ours – both commercialized and in development, which fosters continuous innovation. In the event that one or more of our competitor’s programs are successful, the market for some of our drug products could be reduced or eliminated. Any product for which we obtain FDA approval must also compete for market acceptance and market share.
Our successful marketing of branded products, upon FDA approval, depends primarily on the ability to communicate the effectiveness, safety, and value of the products to healthcare professionals in private practice, group practices, hospitals, academic institutions, and managed care organizations. Competition for branded drugs is less driven by price and is more focused on innovation in treatment of disease, advanced drug delivery, and specific clinical benefits over competitive drug therapies. Unless our products are shown to be differentiated, i.e., have a better safety profile, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness, compared to other alternatives, they may not gain acceptance by medical professionals and may therefore never be commercially successful.
Companies that have products on the market or in research and development that target the same indications as our in-development products or new compounds sought include, among others: Amgen, Inc., Coherus BioSciences, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sandoz, Pfizer, AstraZeneca plc, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd, Rain Therapeutics Inc., Janssen Research & Development, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Cullinan Oncology, LLC, Daiichi-Sankyo Co., Ltd., Genentech, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Novartis International AG.
Each of the aforementioned companies may be more advanced in the development of competing drug products. Many of these competitors are large and well-capitalized companies focusing on a wide range of cancer types and have substantially greater resources and expertise than we do.
We believe that the current competitive landscape for each of our key in-development products, is as follows:
(a)Eflapegrastim is a novel long-acting G-CSF that employs a proprietary technology that prolongs the duration of biologics, reducing the frequency of administration. There is currently one novel long-acting G-CSF and four biosimilar G-CSFs marketed in the United States including, Neulasta® (pegfilgrastim), marketed by Amgen, Inc., UDENYCA™ (pegfilgrastim-cbqv), a biosimilar marketed by Coherus BioSciences, Fulphila® (pegfilgrastim-jmdb), a biosimilar marketed by Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and Ziextenzo® (pegfilgrastim-bmez), a biosimilar marketed by Sandoz, and NYVEPRIA™ (pegfilgrastim-apgf), a biosimilar marketed by Pfizer, Inc. In addition, there are several novel products in development that may compete with eflapegrastim if they are approved, including G1 Therapeutics’ trilaciclib, BeyondSpring’s plinabulin, and Evive Biotech’s benegrastim.
(b)Poziotinib is a novel investigational, oral, quinazoline-based pan-HER inhibitor that irreversibly blocks signaling through the EGFR family of tyrosine-kinase receptors, including human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER1/ErbB1/EGFR), HER2 (ErbB2), and HER4 (ErbB4), as well as HER receptor mutations. Poziotinib’s development program is primarily focused on advanced NSCLC patients harboring exon 20 insertion mutations in HER2(ErbB2). At present there are no FDA approved therapies for metastatic NSCLC patients with HER2 exon 20 insertion mutations.
There are a number of other targeted therapies focused on these subtypes of NSCLC that are in early clinical investigation by our potential competitors, including: TAGRISSO (Osimertinib) - AstraZeneca, Tarlox (tarloxotinib) - Rain Therapeutics Inc., DS-8201a - Daiichi Sankyo, CLN081 - Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Cullinan Oncology, LLC, and Pyrotinib - Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd.
New drug development is the process whereby drug product candidates are tested for the purpose of filing a NDA or a BLA, in the U.S. (or similar filing in other countries). Obtaining marketing approval from the FDA or similar regulatory authorities outside of the U.S. is an inherently uncertain, lengthy, and expensive process that requires several phases of clinical trials to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the appropriate regulatory authorities that the products are both safe and effective for their respective indications. Our development focus is primarily based on acquiring and developing late-stage development drugs as compared to new drug discovery, which is particularly uncertain and lengthy.
Our in-development products are summarized below:
Eflapegrastim
An investigational long-acting granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.
Poziotinib
An investigational orally administered, irreversible tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) for the treatment of solid tumors.
Our research and development expenses for drug development are comprised of our personnel expenses, contracted services with third parties, license fees and milestone payments to third parties, clinical trial costs, laboratory supplies, drug products, and certain allocations of corporate costs. The below table summarizes our research and development expenses by project in 2021 and 2020:
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| | Research and Development Expenses for the Year Ended December 31,
(in thousands) |
| | 2021 | | 2020 | | |
| Eflapegrastim | $ | 14,785 | | | $ | 52,101 | | | |
| Poziotinib | 37,635 | | | 24,254 | | | |
| Anti-CD20-IFNα | 1,073 | | | 2,876 | | | |
| | | | | |
| Other in-development indications/drugs | 1,447 | | | 789 | | | |
| Total — Direct costs | 54,940 | | | 80,020 | | | |
| Add: General research and development expenses (including personnel costs that correspond to more than one in-development project) | 32,357 | | | 29,360 | | | |
| (Less): Reimbursements from development partners | — | | | (3) | | | |
| Total research and development expenses from continuing operations | $ | 87,297 | | | $ | 109,377 | | | |
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| Total research and development expenses from discontinued operations | $ | 59 | | | $ | (43) | | | |
Patents and Proprietary Rights
Overview
We in-license from third parties certain patents and related intellectual property rights related to our proprietary drug products. Under most of these license arrangements, we are generally responsible for all development, patent filing, prosecution, and maintenance costs, sales, marketing and liability insurance costs related to the drug products.
In addition, these licenses and agreements may require us to make royalty and other payments and to reasonably utilize the underlying technology of applicable patents. If we fail to comply with these and other terms in these licenses and agreements, we could lose the underlying rights to one or more of our potential products, which would adversely affect our product development and harm our business. For more information regarding these arrangements see Note 7(b), “Financial Commitments & Contingencies and Key License Agreements,” to our accompanying Consolidated Financial Statements.
The protection, preservation, and infringement-free commercial utilization of these patents and related intellectual property rights are very important to the successful execution of our strategy. However, the issuance of a patent is neither conclusive as to its validity nor as to the enforceable scope of the claims of the patent. Accordingly, our patents and the patents we have licensed may not prevent other companies from developing similar or functionally equivalent products or from successfully challenging the validity of our patents. If our patent applications are not allowed or, even if allowed and issued as patents, if such patents or the patents we have in-licensed are circumvented or not upheld in a court of law or in administrative proceedings, including oppositions, re-examinations or inter parties review, our ability to competitively utilize our patented products and technologies may be significantly reduced. Also, such patents may or may not provide competitive advantages for their respective products or they may be challenged or circumvented by competitors, in which case our ability to commercially sell these products may be diminished.
From time-to-time, we may need to obtain licenses to patents and other proprietary rights held by third parties to develop, manufacture and market our products. If we are unable to timely obtain these licenses on commercially reasonable terms, our ability to commercially exploit such products may be inhibited or prevented.
In-Development Drug Products - Patents and Licenses Summary
We believe that our patents and licenses are critical to operating our business, as summarized below.
Eflapegrastim: Composition of matter patents covering eflapegrastim are due to expire in 2025 in the U.S. and in 2024 outside the U.S. We also have a eflapegrastim formulation patent granted in the U.S., Europe, Japan and other countries. The formulation patent will not expire in the U.S. until 2031. One of these patents is eligible for possible patent term extension following regulatory approval of eflapegrastim. Eflapegrastim is also covered by additional patents and pending applications claiming various aspects of the technology and formulation that are due to expire between 2024 and 2030.
Poziotinib: A composition of matter patent covering poziotinib is due to expire in 2028. Poziotinib is also covered by additional patents and patent applications covering its formulations and synthetic processes which will expire between 2032 and 2034. We have licensed patent applications covering the use of poziotinib that if granted, would expire in 2037.
Patent Protection and Value Maximization
We are constantly evaluating our patent portfolio and are currently assessing and filing patent applications for our drug products and considering new patent applications in order to maximize the life cycle of each of our products.
While the U.S. and the European Union, or EU, are currently the largest potential markets for most of our products, we also have patents issued and patent applications pending outside of the U.S. and Europe. Limitations on patent protection in these countries, and the differences in what constitutes patentable subject matter in countries outside the U.S., may limit the protection we have on patents issued or licensed to us outside of the U.S. In addition, laws of foreign countries may not protect our intellectual property to the same extent as would laws in the U.S.
To minimize our costs and expenses and to maintain effective protection, we usually focus our patent and licensing activities within the U.S., the EU, Canada, and Japan. In determining whether or not to seek a patent or to license any patent in a certain foreign country, we weigh the relevant costs and benefits, and consider, among other things, the market potential and profitability, the scope of patent protection afforded by the law of the jurisdiction and its enforceability, and the nature of terms with any potential licensees. Failure to obtain adequate patent protection for our proprietary drugs and technology would impair our ability to be commercially competitive in these markets.
In conducting our business, we rely upon trade secrets, know-how, and licensing arrangements. We use customary practices for the protection of our confidential and proprietary information such as confidentiality agreements and trade secret protection measures. It is possible that these agreements will be breached or will not be enforceable in every instance, and that we will not have adequate remedies for any such breach. It is also possible that our trade secrets or know-how will otherwise become known or independently developed by competitors. The protection of know-how is particularly important because it is often necessary or useful information that allows us to practice the claims in the patents related to our proprietary drug products.
In addition to the specific intellectual property subjects discussed above, we have a trademark registration in the U.S. for Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc.®. We also have trademarks for the Spectrum Pharmaceuticals’ logos. Any other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Product Exclusivity
The Patent Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (“PPACA”), provides exclusivity protections for certain innovator biological products and a framework for FDA review and approval of biosimilar and interchangeable versions of innovator biologic products. The PPACA provides that no application for a biosimilar product may be approved until 12 years after the date on which the innovator product was first licensed, and no application may be submitted until four years after the date of the first licensure. Products deemed interchangeable (as opposed to biosimilar) are also eligible for certain exclusivity.
Governmental Regulation
The development, production and marketing of our proprietary and biologic products are subject to regulation for safety, efficacy and quality by numerous governmental authorities in the U.S. and other countries. In the U.S., drugs and biologics are subject to rigorous regulation. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended from time to time, and the regulations promulgated thereunder, as well as other federal and state statutes and regulations, govern, among other things, the development, approval, manufacture, safety, labeling, storage, record keeping, distribution, promotion, and advertising of our products. Product development and approval within this regulatory framework, including for drugs already at a clinical stage of development, can take many years and require the expenditure of substantial resources, and to obtain FDA approval, a product must satisfy mandatory quality, safety, and efficacy requirements. In addition, each drug-manufacturing establishment must be registered with the FDA. Domestic manufacturing establishments must comply with the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practices, or cGMP, regulations and are subject to inspections by the FDA. To supply drug ingredients or products for use in the U.S., foreign manufacturing establishments must also comply with cGMP and are subject to inspections by the FDA or by other regulatory authorities in certain countries under reciprocal agreements with the FDA.
General Information about the Drug Approval Process and Post-Marketing Requirements
The U.S. system of new drug and biologics approval is a rigorous process. Only a small percentage of compounds that enter the pre-clinical testing stage are ever approved for commercialization. Our strategy focuses on in-licensing clinical stage drug products that are already in or about to enter human clinical trials. A late-stage focus helps us to effectively manage the high cost of drug development by focusing on compounds that have already passed the many hurdles in the pre-clinical and early clinical process.
The following general comments about the drug approval process are relevant to the development activities we are undertaking with our proprietary products.
Pre-clinical Testing: During the pre-clinical testing stage, laboratory and animal studies are conducted to show biological activity of a drug or biologic compound against the targeted disease. The compound is evaluated for safety. While some of our compounds are currently in clinical trials, it is possible that additional pre-clinical testing could be requested by a regulatory authority for any of our compounds.
Investigational New Drug Application (“IND”): After certain pre-clinical studies are completed, an IND application is submitted to the FDA to request the ability to begin human testing of the drug or biologic. An IND becomes effective thirty days after the FDA receives the application (unless the FDA notifies the sponsor of a clinical hold), or upon prior notification by the FDA.
Phase 1 Clinical Trials: These trials typically involve small numbers of healthy volunteers or patients and usually define a drug candidate’s safety profile, including the safe dosage range.
Phase 2 Clinical Trials: In Phase 2 clinical trials, controlled studies of human patients with the targeted disease are conducted to assess the drug’s effectiveness. These studies are designed primarily to determine the appropriate dose levels, dose schedules and route(s) of administration, and to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug or biologic on humans, as well as to determine if there are any side effects on humans to expand the safety profile following Phase 1. These clinical trials, and Phase 3 trials discussed below, are designed to evaluate the product’s overall benefit-risk profile, and to provide information for physician labeling.
Phase 3 Clinical Trials: This Phase usually involves a larger number of patients with the targeted disease. Investigators (typically physicians) monitor the patients to determine the drug candidate’s efficacy and to observe and report any adverse reactions that may result from long-term use of the drug on a large, more widespread, patient population. During the Phase 3 clinical trials, typically the drug candidate is compared to either a placebo or a standard treatment for the target disease.
New Drug Application or Biologics License Application: After completion of all three clinical trial Phases, if the data indicates that the drug is safe and effective, a NDA or BLA is filed with the FDA requesting FDA approval to market the new drug as a treatment for the target disease.
Fast Track and Priority Review: The FDA has established procedures for accelerating the approval of drugs to be marketed for serious or life-threatening diseases for which the manufacturer can demonstrate the potential to address unmet medical needs.
Abbreviated New Drug Application (“ANDA”): An ANDA is an abbreviated new drug application for generic drugs created by the Hatch-Waxman Act. When a company files an ANDA, it must make a patent certification regarding the patents covering the branded product listed in the FDA’s Orange Book. The ANDA drug development process generally takes less time than the NDA drug development process since the ANDA process usually does not require new clinical trials establishing the safety and efficacy of the drug product.
Breakthrough Therapy Designation (“BTD”): A BTD is available from the FDA for drugs or drug combinations used to treat serious or life-threatening disease conditions based on preliminary clinical evidence that the drug may offer substantial improvement over existing therapies. FDA may grant priority approval to breakthrough drug indications. FDA may also grant accelerated approval and priority review for drugs that fill an unmet medical need. An advantage to this designation is that clinical trials may use surrogate endpoints to predict clinical benefit, requiring less time than other objective endpoints such as overall survival.
NDA/BLA and ANDA Approval: The FDA approves drugs and biologics that are subject to NDA and BLA review based on data in the application demonstrating the product is safe and effective in its proposed use(s) and that the product’s benefits outweigh its risks. The FDA will also review the NDA or BLA applicant’s manufacturing process and controls to ensure they are adequate to preserve the drug’s identity, strength, quality, and purity. Finally, the FDA will review and approve the
product’s proposed labeling. As for the ANDA approval process, these “abbreviated” applications are generally not required to include pre-clinical or clinical data to establish safety and effectiveness. Rather, an ANDA must demonstrate both chemical equivalence and bio-equivalence (the rate and extent of absorption in the body) to the innovator drug — unless a bio-equivalence waiver is granted by the FDA.
Postmarketing requirements (PMRs): PMR refers to postmarketing requirements, studies or clinical trials the sponsor is required to conduct. These studies might be required for a number of reasons including:
•Postmarketing studies or clinical trials to demonstrate clinical benefit for drugs approved under the accelerated approval requirements
•Deferred pediatric studies, where studies are required under the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA)
•Studies or clinical trials to demonstrate safety and efficacy in humans that must be conducted at the time of use of products approved under the Animal Efficacy Rule
Phase 4 Clinical Trials: After a drug has been approved by the FDA, Phase 4 studies may be conducted to explore additional patient populations, compare the drug to a competitor, or to further study the risks, benefits and optimal use of a drug. These studies may be a requirement as a condition of the initial approval of the NDA or BLA.
Post-Approval Studies Requirements under FDAAA: The Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act of 2007, or FDAAA, significantly added to the FDA’s authority to require post-approval studies. Under the FDAAA, if the FDA becomes aware of new safety information after approval of a product, they may require us to conduct further clinical trials to assess a known serious risk, signals of serious risk or to identify an unexpected serious risk. If required to conduct a post-approval study, periodic status reports must be submitted to the FDA. Failure to conduct such post-approval studies in a timely manner may result in administrative action being taken by FDA, including substantial civil fines.
Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy Authority under FDAAA: The FDAAA also gave the FDA authority to require the implementation of a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy, or REMS, for a product when necessary to minimize known and preventable safety risks associated with the product. The FDA may require the submission of a REMS before a product is approved, or after approval based on “new safety information,” including new analysis of existing safety information. A REMS may include a medication guide, patient package insert, a plan for communication with healthcare providers, or other elements as the FDA deems are necessary to assure safe use of the product, which could include imposing certain restrictions on distribution or use of a product. A REMS must include a timetable for submission of assessments of the strategy at specified time intervals. Failure to comply with a REMS, including the submission of a required assessment, may result in substantial civil or criminal penalties.
Other Issues Related to Product Safety: Adverse events that are reported after marketing approval also can result in additional limitations being placed on a product’s use and, potentially, withdrawal of the product from the market. In addition, under the FDAAA, the FDA has authority to mandate labeling changes to products at any point in a product’s life cycle based on new safety information derived from clinical trials, post-approval studies, peer-reviewed medical literature, or post-market risk identification and analysis systems data.
FDA Enforcement
The development of drug and biologic products, as well as the marketing of approved drugs and biologics, is subject to substantial continuing regulation by the FDA, including regulation of adverse event reporting, manufacturing practices and the advertising and promotion of the product. Failure to comply with the FDA and other governmental regulations can result in fines, unanticipated compliance expenditures, recall or seizure of products, total or partial suspension of production and/or distribution, suspension of the FDA’s review of NDAs, BLAs, ANDAs or other product applications, enforcement actions, injunctions and criminal prosecution. Under certain circumstances, the FDA also has the authority to revoke previously granted drug approvals.
With respect specifically to information submitted to the FDA in support of marketing applications, the FDA, under its Fraud, Untrue Statements of Material Facts, Bribery and Illegal Gratuities Policy, can significantly delay the approval of a marketing application, or seek to withdraw an approved application where it identifies fraud or discrepancies in regulatory submissions. Such actions by the FDA may significantly delay or suspend substantive scientific review of a pending application during validity assessment or remove approved products from the market until the assessment is complete and questions regarding reliability of the data are resolved. In addition, the Generic Drug Enforcement Act of 1992 (the “Generic Drug Enforcement Act”) established penalties for wrongdoing in connection with the development or submission of an ANDA. Under the Generic Drug Enforcement Act, the FDA has the authority to permanently or temporarily bar companies or
individuals from submitting or assisting in the submission of an ANDA, and to temporarily deny approval and suspend applications to market generic drugs. The FDA may also suspend the distribution of all drugs approved or developed in connection with certain wrongful conduct and/or withdraw approval of an ANDA and seek civil penalties.
Healthcare Reform
Continuing studies of the proper utilization, safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals and other health care products are being conducted by industry, government agencies and others. Such studies, which increasingly employ sophisticated methods and techniques, can call into question the utilization, safety and efficacy of previously marketed products and in some cases have resulted, and may in the future result, in the discontinuance of their marketing.
The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, or the Institute, a private, non-profit corporation created as a result of the PPACA, is tasked with assisting patients, clinicians, purchasers, and policy-makers in making informed health decisions. One of the Institute’s initiatives will be to conduct comparative clinical effectiveness research, which is defined as “research evaluating and comparing health outcomes and the clinical effectiveness, risks, and benefits of two or more medical treatments, services, and items.” It is important to note that the Institute would not be permitted to mandate coverage, reimbursement, or other policies for any public or private payer, however, the outcome of the Institute’s initiatives could influence prescriber behavior.
Foreign Regulation
Whether or not we obtain FDA approval for a product, we must obtain approval of a product by the comparable regulatory authorities of foreign countries before we can commence clinical trials or marketing of the product in those countries. The approval process varies from country/region to country/region, and the time may be longer or shorter than that required for FDA approval. The requirements governing the conduct of clinical trials, product licensing, pricing and reimbursement also may vary, sometimes significantly, from country/region to country/region.
Under the EU regulatory systems, we may submit marketing authorization applications either under a centralized procedure or decentralized procedure or the mutual recognition procedure. The centralized procedure is mandatory for medicines produced by a biotechnological process. The procedure is also mandatory for new active substances which are indicated for treatment of several diseases or conditions, including cancer and orphan conditions. Companies may apply for centralized assessment if the product contains a new active substance or the product constitutes significant therapeutic, scientific or technical innovation or the granting of authorization under the centralized procedure is in the interests of the EU patients. A centralized marketing authorization is valid in all EU member states. This marketing authorization is issued in the form of a European Commission decision which is legally binding in its entirety to which it is addressed.
Directive 2004/27/EC introduced two parallel procedures to the centralized procedure to allow a product to be progressively authorized in each of the member states of the EU. They are the decentralized procedure and the mutual recognition procedure. The mutual recognition procedure applies where the product has already been authorized in a member state of the EU that will act as reference member state. The national marketing authorization granted by the reference member state forms the basis for mutual recognition in the member states chosen by the applicant. In the decentralized procedure, the product in question is not authorized in any one the EU member states. In such a situation, the applicant company will request a member state to act as the reference member state to lead the scientific assessment for the benefit/risk balance for agreement by the concerned member states. In both cases, the concerned member states have up to 90 days to accept or raise reasoned objections to the assessment made by the reference member state.
In addition, pricing and reimbursement is subject to negotiation and regulation in most countries outside the U.S. Increasingly, adoption of a new product for use in national health services is subject to health technology assessment under the national rules and regulations to establish the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of a new treatment. In some countries, in order to contain health care expenditures, reference price is introduced in order for the national healthcare providers to achieve a price comparable to the reference price in the same therapeutic category. We may therefore face the risk that the resulting prices would be insufficient to generate an acceptable return to us.
Third Party Reimbursement and Pricing Controls
In the U.S. and elsewhere, sales of pharmaceutical products depend in significant part on the availability of reimbursement to the consumer from third-party payers, such as government and private insurance plans. Third-party payers are increasingly challenging the prices charged for medical products and services. It is time-consuming and expensive for us to go
through the process of seeking coverage from Medicare and private payers. Our products may not be considered cost effective, and coverage and reimbursement may not be available or sufficient to allow us to sell our products on a competitive and profitable basis.
The PPACA enacted significant reforms, including revising the definition of “average manufacturer price” for reporting purposes, increasing Medicaid rebates, expanding the 340B drug discount program, and making changes to affect the Medicare Part D coverage gap, or “donut hole.” In the coming years, additional significant changes could be made to governmental healthcare programs, and to the U.S. healthcare system as a whole, that may result in significantly increased demand for rebates, decreased pricing flexibility, diminished negotiating flexibility, coverage and reimbursement limitations based upon comparative and cost-effectiveness reviews, and other measures that could significantly impact the success of our products.
In many foreign markets, including the countries in the EU, pricing of pharmaceutical products is subject to governmental control. In the U.S., there have been, and we expect that there will continue to be, a number of federal and state proposals to implement similar governmental pricing controls or product coverage limitations.
Employees
As of December 31, 2021, we had 164 employees (as compared to 176 employees as of December 31, 2020), 163 of whom were full-time employees, 7 of whom hold an M.D. degree and 29 of whom hold a Ph.D. degree.
We are an equal opportunity employer and we maintain policies that prohibit unlawful discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin/ancestry, age, disability, marital and veteran status.
We are proud to employ a diverse workforce that, as December 31, 2021, was 66% non-white and 47% women. In addition, as of December 31, 2021, women made up 17% of our senior leadership team. We strive to build and nurture a culture where all employees feel valued and embrace unique points of view.
We believe that the success of our business will depend, in part, on our ability to attract and retain uniquely qualified personnel. We seek to provide people-focused policies that provide for the health, safety and welfare of our employees and their families, as well as professional development and training programs for our team members. In connection with the ongoing pandemic during 2020, we implemented the following policies:
•Instituted a remote work mandate for all staff and provided technical support and training to enable employees to continue to perform their responsibilities while working remotely;
•Implemented safety procedures for all staff, which includes on site and essential travel training for those applicable employees;
•Provided full coverage for all COVID related medical expenses for all eligible employees and their family members, and paid time off for any employee that missed time due to the COVID-19 pandemic including for the care of family members; and
•Modified our flexible spending and 401(k) plans to allow employees more financial flexibility during the economic downturn resulting from the pandemic.
We provide competitive compensation packages designed to attract and retain high-quality employees. All of our employees are eligible for cash bonuses and grants of equity awards. We regularly evaluate our compensation programs with an independent compensation consultant and utilize industry benchmarking in an effort to ensure competitiveness compared to similar biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies with which we compete for talent, as well as fair and equitable across our workforce with respect to gender, race, and other personal characteristics. In addition, we provide a variety of programs and services to help employees balance their career and home life, including an attractive mix of healthcare, insurance, and other benefit plans. We deliver a benefits program that is designed to keep our employees and their families healthy, which includes not only medical, dental and vision benefits, but also legal services, supplemental life insurance, pet insurance, paid parental leave, dependent care, mental health services, company sponsored fitness programs, and other wellness benefits and incentives.
We also value career development for all employees, and we provide reimbursement and time for employees to attend professional development courses ranging from technical training, competency-based workshops and leadership development programs facilitated by external partners who are experts in their respective fields. Direct managers also take an active role in
identifying individualized development plans to assist employees in realizing their full potential and creating opportunities for promotions and added responsibilities that enhance the engagement and retention of our workforce.
Our employees are not part of any collective bargaining agreements and we believe that we have good relations with our employees.
General Information
We are a Delaware corporation. We originally incorporated in Colorado in December 1987 as Americus Funding Corporation. We changed our corporate name in August 1996 to NeoTherapeutics, Inc., and reincorporated in Delaware in June 1997. We changed our corporate name in December 2002 to Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Our principal executive office is located at 11500 South Eastern Avenue, Suite 220, Henderson, Nevada 89052. Our telephone number is (702) 835-6300. Our website is located at www.sppirx.com. The information that can be accessed through our website is not incorporated by reference into this Annual Report on Form 10-K and should not be considered to be a part hereof.
We make our proxy statements, annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K (and related amendments to these reports, as applicable) available on our website free of charge as soon as practicable after filing or furnishing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or the SEC.
All such reports are also available free of charge via EDGAR through the SEC website at www.sec.gov. In addition, the public may read and copy materials filed by us with the SEC at the SEC’s public reference room located at 100 F Street, NE, Washington, D.C., 20549. Information regarding operation of the SEC’s public reference room can be obtained by calling the SEC at 1-800-732-0330.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
Before deciding to invest in our company, or to maintain or increase your investment, you should carefully consider the risks described below, in addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports we have filed with the SEC. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties not presently known to us, or that we currently deem immaterial, may also affect our business operations. If any of these risks are realized, our business, financial condition, or results of operations could be seriously harmed and in that event, the market price for our common stock could decline, and you may lose all or part of your investment.
These risk factors should be considered in connection with evaluating the forward-looking statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These factors could cause actual results and conditions to differ materially from those projected in our forward-looking statements.
SUMMARY OF RISK FACTORS
You should carefully consider the following risk factors and all other information contained herein as well as the information included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and other reports and filings made with the SEC in evaluating our business and prospects. Risks and uncertainties, in addition to those we describe below, that are not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also impair our business operations. If any of the following risks occur, our business and financial results could be harmed and the price of our common stock could decline. You should also refer to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our Consolidated Financial Statements and the related Notes.
Risks Related to Our Business
•If we are unable to continue to successfully develop poziotinib, eflapegrastim, or any of our other pipeline products, our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition will be materially harmed.
•Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our drug products, which could prevent or significantly delay obtaining regulatory approval.
•We currently generate no revenue from commercial sales and future commercial sales may not be sufficient to sustain our business operations.
•The COVID-19 pandemic and any similar future outbreaks could materially and adversely impact or disrupt our business and our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and performance.
•The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are intensely competitive. We are aware of several competitors attempting to develop and market products competitive to our in-development products, which may reduce or eliminate our commercial opportunities in the future.
•Our supply of APIs, and drug products is and will remain dependent upon the production capabilities of contract manufacturing organizations (“CMOs”) and other third-parties for related supplies and logistical services. Some of these vendors are based overseas. If our CMOs and other suppliers are not able to meet our requirements or FDA scrutiny, we may be unable to obtain approval for our products. Even if we do obtain approval for our products, we may be limited in our ability to meet demand for our products, ensure regulatory compliance, or maximize profit on the future sale of our products. Any manufacturing-related disruptions could create significant demand on our limited capital resources, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to continue as a going concern. In addition, our dependence on these ex-U.S. vendors also subjects us to business interruption risks related to COVID-19, and/or similar outbreaks, which could have a material adverse impact on us.
•Our future sales will depend on coverage and reimbursement from third-party payers and a reduction in the coverage and/or reimbursement for our products could have a material adverse effect on our product sales, business and results of operations.
•A breakdown or breach of our information technology systems and cybersecurity efforts could subject us to liability, reputational damage or interrupt the operation of our business.
•Reports of adverse events or safety concerns involving our in-development products or similar agents, could delay or prevent us from obtaining or maintaining regulatory approval or negatively impact sales.
•Our dependence on key executives, scientists and sales and marketing personnel could impact the development and management of our business.
•Competition for patients in conducting clinical trials may prevent or delay product development and strain our limited financial resources.
Risks Related to Our Industry
•If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, or if we fail to comply with governmental regulations, we will be limited in our ability to commercialize our products and product candidates domestically or abroad and/or will be subject to penalties.
•Even after we receive regulatory approval to market our drug products, the market may not be receptive to our drug products upon their commercial introduction, which would negatively impact our ability to achieve profitability.
•Guidelines and recommendations from various organizations can reduce the use of our products.
•Legislative or regulatory reform of the healthcare system and pharmaceutical industry related to pricing, coverage or reimbursement may hurt our ability to sell our products profitably or at all.
•If our marketing violates federal or state health care fraud and abuse laws, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including exclusion from participation in government health care programs.
•We could be adversely affected by violations of the FCPA and other worldwide anti-bribery laws.
•Governmental pricing regulations could adversely affect our negotiated pricing, or limit product coverage and reimbursements may adversely impact our operating results and our business.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
•Future issuances of our common stock or other dilutive instruments, may materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock and cause dilution to our existing stockholders.
•The market price and trading volume of our common stock fluctuate significantly and could result in substantial losses for individual investors.
•If our common stock continues to trade below $1, our stock could be delisted.
•Provisions of our charter, and bylaws may make it more difficult for someone to acquire control of us or replace current management even if doing so would benefit our stockholders, which may lower the price an acquirer or investor would pay for our stock.
Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property
•In-license patents and proprietary technologies from third parties may be difficult or expensive to obtain.
•If we are unable to adequately protect our technology or enforce our patent rights, our business could suffer, and intellectual property rights don’t necessarily address all potential threats.
•If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose intellectual property rights that are important to our business.
•An inability to protect our patents or trade secrets will have an adverse effect on our business, and patent terms may be inadequate to protect us from competitors.
•Changes in U.S. patent law may diminish the value of our patents, and the costs of maintaining our patents can be costly, complex, and uncertain and we may be subject to infringement claims.
•We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.
•We may be involved in additional lawsuits to defend or enforce our patents, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.
•We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property, and may be subject to federal regulations such as “march-in” rights that limit our exclusive rights or ability to contract with non-US manufacturers.
General Risk Factors
•Lack of effective internal controls over financial reporting could result in material misstatements that affects investor confidence negatively, which in turn could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
•Earthquakes or other natural or man-made disasters and business interruptions could adversely affect our business.
•We are subject to the risks of securities and related litigation, which may expose us to substantial liabilities and could seriously harm our business.
•Global, market and economic conditions may negatively impact our business, financial condition and share price.
For a more complete discussion of the material risks facing our business, see below.
Risks Related to Our Business
If we are unable to continue to successfully develop poziotinib, eflapegrastim, or any of our other pipeline products, our business, prospects, operating results, and financial condition will be materially harmed.
The announcement of any negative or unexpected data, any delay in our anticipated timelines for filing for regulatory approval, or a significant advancement of a competitor, may cause our stock price to decline significantly and may have an adverse impact on our business, financial condition and prospects. In addition, clinical trial results are frequently susceptible to varying interpretations that may delay, limit or prevent regulatory approvals. There is no assurance that data from our clinical trials will support filings for regulatory approval of any of our pipeline products, or even if approved, that these drugs will become commercially successful for all approved indications. In addition, we may experience significant setbacks in our advanced clinical trials, even after promising results in earlier trials, including unexpected adverse events. Any deficiencies in the our clinical trial operations or other unexpected adverse events impacting such trials could cause increased costs, program delays or both, which may harm our business.
If one of our pipeline products fails at any stage of development, or we otherwise determine to discontinue development of that product, we will not have the anticipated revenues from that product, and we may not receive any return of our investment on it. Consequently, our stock price could decline significantly and there could be an adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
For example, in October of 2019 we announced that we had submitted the BLA for eflapegrastim and in August 2021, we received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA regarding our BLA, citing deficiencies related to manufacturing and indicating that a reinspection will be necessary. We believe we have completed the remediation of these deficiencies and resubmitted the BLA on March 11, 2022. In addition, the company announced the submission of the poziotinib NDA in December 2021. In February of 2022, the company announced that the FDA accepted the NDA and reiterated the importance of having the confirmatory trial substantially enrolled at the time of approval and requested additional information around dosing. Due to the uncertainty of the regulatory approval process, we may not be successful at developing these drugs or receiving approval.
Clinical trials may fail to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of our drug products, which could prevent or significantly delay obtaining regulatory approval.
Prior to receiving approval to commercialize any of our drug products, we must demonstrate with substantial evidence from well-controlled clinical trials, and to the satisfaction of the FDA, and other regulatory authorities in the U.S. and other countries, that each of the products is both safe and effective. For each drug product, we will need to demonstrate its efficacy and monitor its safety throughout the process. If such development is unsuccessful, our business and reputation would be harmed and our stock price would be adversely affected.
We are currently conducting multiple clinical trials for our products. Each of our clinical trials requires investment of substantial financial and personnel resources. The commencement and completion of these clinical trials may be delayed by various factors, including scheduling conflicts with participating clinicians and clinical institutions, difficulties in identifying and enrolling patients who meet trial eligibility criteria, failure of patients to complete the clinical trial, delays in accumulating the required number of clinical events for data analysis, delay or failure to obtain the required approval to conduct a clinical trial at a prospective site, and shortages of available drug supply.
All of our drug products are prone to the risks of failure inherent in drug development. Clinical trials of new drug products sufficient to obtain regulatory marketing approval are expensive, uncertain, and take years to complete. We may not be able to successfully complete clinical testing within the time frame we have planned, or at all. Moreover, the outcome of a clinical trial is often uncertain. We may experience numerous unforeseen events during, or as a result of, the clinical trial process that could delay or prevent us from receiving regulatory approval or commercializing our drug products. In this regard, reports of adverse events or concerns involving any of our products could interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials of such products or could result in our inability to obtain regulatory approvals for such products. In addition, the results of pre-clinical studies and early-stage clinical trials of our drug products do not necessarily predict the results of later-stage clinical trials. Later-stage clinical trials may fail to demonstrate that a drug product is safe and effective despite having progressed through initial clinical testing. Even if we believe the data collected from clinical trials of our drug products is promising, data are susceptible to varying interpretations, and such data may not be sufficient to support approval by the FDA or any other U.S. or foreign regulatory approval. Pre-clinical and clinical data can be interpreted in different ways.
Accordingly, FDA officials could interpret such data in different ways than we or our partners do which could delay, limit or prevent regulatory approval. The FDA, other regulatory authorities, our institutional review boards, our contract research organizations, or we may suspend or terminate our clinical trials for our drug products. Any failure or significant delay in completing clinical trials for our drug products, or in receiving regulatory approval for the sale of any drugs resulting from our drug products, may severely harm our business and reputation and may cause our stock price to decline. Even if we receive FDA and other regulatory approvals, our drug products may later exhibit adverse effects that may limit or prevent their widespread use, may cause the FDA to revoke, suspend or limit their approval, or may force us to withdraw products derived from those drug products from the market. Furthermore, there is the risk that additional post-marketing requirements may be imposed by the FDA in the future on our products.
Moreover, the commencement and completion of clinical trials may be delayed by many factors that are beyond our control, including:
•delays obtaining regulatory approval to commence a trial;
•delays in reaching agreement on acceptable terms with contract research organizations (“CROs”), and clinical trial sites;
•delays in obtaining institutional review board, or IRB, approval at each site;
•slower than anticipated patient enrollment or our inability to recruit and enroll patients to participate in clinical trials for various reasons, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic;
•our inability to retain patients who have initiated a clinical trial;
•scheduling conflicts with participating clinicians and clinical institutions;
•lack of funding to start or continue the clinical trial, including as a result of unforeseen costs due to enrollment delays, requirements to conduct additional trials and studies and increased expenses associated with our CROs and other third parties;
•negative or inconclusive results;
•deficiencies in the conduct of the clinical trial, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements, good clinical practice, or clinical protocols;
•deficiencies in the clinical trial operations or trial sites resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold;
•patient noncompliance with the protocol;
•adverse medical events or side effects experienced by patients during the clinical trials as a result of or resulting from the clinical trial treatments;
•fatalities or other adverse events arising during a clinical trial due to medical problems that may not be related to clinical trial treatments;
•our ability to sustain the quality or stability of the applicable product candidate in compliance with acceptable standards;
•our inability to produce or obtain sufficient quantities of the applicable product candidate to complete the clinical trials;
•changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions that adversely affect our ability to continue to conduct or complete clinical trials;
•negative or problematic FDA inspections of our clinical operations or manufacturing operations; and
•real or perceived lack of effectiveness or safety.
We could encounter delays if a clinical trial is suspended or terminated by us, the IRBs of the clinical trial sites in which such trials are being conducted, or by the FDA or other regulatory authorities. Such authorities may impose such a suspension or termination due to a number of factors, including failure to conduct the clinical trial in accordance with regulatory requirements or our clinical protocols, inspection of the clinical trial operations or trial site by the FDA or other regulatory authorities resulting in the imposition of a clinical hold, unforeseen safety issues or adverse side effects, failure to demonstrate a benefit from using a drug, changes in governmental regulations or administrative actions or lack of adequate funding to continue the clinical trial. Any delays, interruptions or halts in our clinical trials involving any of our products or other adverse events negatively impacting our ability to obtain regulatory approvals for such products in a timely manner could adversely affect our overall profitability, results of operations and financial condition and prospects.
We currently generate no revenue from commercial sales and future commercial sales may not be sufficient to sustain our business operations.
We will not generate any future revenue until our pipeline products, including the late-stage development products eflapegrastim and poziotinib, are approved for commercial sale by the FDA and/or other regulatory agencies. There is no guarantee as to when, if ever, our pipeline products will be approved for commercial sale. Accordingly, we may need to raise additional capital to fund our business operations. To the extent that additional capital is raised through the sale of equity or convertible debt securities, it could result in further dilution to our stockholders and adversely impact our stock price.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the future outbreak of other highly infectious or contagious diseases, could materially and adversely impact or disrupt our business and our financial condition, results of operations, cash flows and performance.
The COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation measures also have had an adverse impact on global economic conditions which could have an adverse effect on our business and financial condition, including impairment of our ability to raise capital when needed. The trading prices for biopharmaceutical companies’ stock have been highly volatile as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the continued spread of COVID-19 could cause a recession, depression, or other sustained adverse market event which could materially and adversely affect our business and the value of our common shares.
We have maintained our operations during the COVID-19 pandemic by requiring most of our employees to work remotely. Only those employees performing essential activities that must be completed on-site are allowed in our facilities. These modifications to business activity may negatively impact productivity and cause disruptions and delays to our business. Longer term remote working environments could increase our cyber security risk, create data accessibility concerns, and make us more susceptible to communication disruptions. When we reopen our facilities, we could encounter delays in connection with implementing precautionary measures to mitigate the risk of exposing our employees to COVID-19.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic has not materially affected our clinical development programs to date, certain of our clinical programs have seen slower enrollment and there have also been delays in initiating new studies as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These delays are not seen across all our trials and are specific to certain trials enrolling at certain sites. In the future, the COVID-19 pandemic could further adversely affect our ability to enroll and recruit patients in current and future clinical trials, as well as delay data collection and analysis, any of which could cause a delay or denial of regulatory approval of our product candidates. Our success is dependent on our ability to advance our development programs into later stages of clinical development. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies have indicated that their clinical trials will be delayed and enrollment of current and ongoing trials will suffer as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We anticipate the potential for delays in the initiation and enrollment of planned clinical trials until the pandemic resolves.
On October 26, 2020, we announced that the FDA had deferred action on the BLA for eflapegrastim due to its inability to conduct an inspection of the Hanmi manufacturing facility in South Korea as a result of travel restrictions associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In early June 2021, the FDA conducted the pre-approval inspection of the Hanmi manufacturing facility. In August 2021, we received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA regarding our BLA, citing deficiencies related to manufacturing and indicating that a reinspection will be necessary. We believe we have completed the remediation of these deficiencies and resubmitted the BLA on March 11, 2022. However, we cannot guarantee that we, together with our contract manufacturers, will be able to remediate the cited deficiencies in a timely manner, or at all, and we cannot predict whether the COVID-19 pandemic will again delay or even prevent the FDA from completing any reinspections that may be required in connection with a resubmission of the BLA for efapegrastim.
The COVID-19 pandemic could also adversely affect our supply chain for other third party vendors for research supplies, development activities including manufacturing of drug product for our clinical studies and testing of drug material. If any of the vendors in our supply chain of products or services are severely affected from the COVID-19 pandemic, it will adversely affect our ability to continue our research and development activities and also continue our clinical trial activities. Disruptions to our business operations or operations of our third-party manufacturers and CROs on which we rely to conduct our clinical trials could be significant and of undetermined length. Significant restrictions or bans on travel could impede, delay, limit or prevent our employees and CROs from continuing research and development activities.
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are intensely competitive. We are aware of several competitors attempting to develop and market products competitive to our in-development products, which may reduce or eliminate our commercial opportunities in the future.
The pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries are intensely competitive and subject to rapid and significant technological changes. A number of companies are pursuing the development of pharmaceuticals and products that target the same diseases and conditions that our pipeline products target. We cannot predict with accuracy the timing or impact of the introduction of potentially competitive products or their possible effect on our future sales. Certain potentially competitive products to our in-development products are in various stages of development, some of which have pending applications for approval with the FDA or have been approved by regulatory authorities in other countries. Also, there are many ongoing studies with currently marketed products and other developmental products, which may yield new data that could adversely impact the use of our products upon potential FDA approval. Some of our in-development products may become obsolete before we recover the expenses incurred in their development. The introduction of competitive products or the development of technological advances that compete with our products could significantly reduce anticipated future sales, which, in turn would adversely impact our financial and operating results.
Our supply of APIs and drug products is and will remain dependent upon the production capabilities of CMOs and other third-parties for related supplies and logistical services. Some of these vendors are based overseas. If our CMOs and other suppliers are not able to meet our requirements or FDA scrutiny, we may be unable to obtain approval for our products. Even if we do obtain approval for our products, we may be limited in our ability to meet demand for our products, ensure regulatory compliance, or maximize profit on the future sale of our products. Any manufacturing-related disruptions could create significant demand on our limited capital resources, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to continue as a going concern. In addition, our dependence on these ex-U.S. vendors also subjects us to business interruption risks related to COVID-19, and/or similar outbreaks, which could have a material adverse impact on us.
We have no internal manufacturing capacity for APIs or our drug products. We therefore have entered into agreements with CMOs and other suppliers to supply us with APIs and our finished drug products. Success in the development and marketing of our drug products depends, in part, upon our ability to maintain, expand and enhance these existing relationships and establish new sources of supply. The manufacture of APIs and finished drug products, including the acquisition of compounds used in the manufacture of the finished drug products, may require considerable lead times. We have little or no control over the production processes of third-party manufacturers, CMOs or other suppliers. Some of the third-party manufacturing facilities used in the production of APIs and our drug products are located outside of the U.S. and require FDA approval, which our third-party manufacturers may have limited experience with obtaining. Our CMOs and other suppliers are subject to inspection by the FDA and may receive observations that they may not be able to resolve in a timely or effective manner, which could impact whether our products can be approved on a timely basis, if at all. We recently received a Complete Response Letter from the FDA on August 6, 2021 for our eflapegrastim BLA that cited various manufacturing deficiencies at our API and our fill-and-finish suppliers. There is no guarantee that the remediation efforts will be found to be acceptable by the FDA.
The manufacture of pharmaceutical products requires significant expertise and capital investment, including the development of manufacturing and testing techniques, process controls, and scaling of production to meet commercial requirements. Manufacturers of pharmaceutical products often encounter difficulties during preparation for production, including technical challenges production costs, yields, quality control and assurance. If manufacturing deficiencies are noted by the FDA at any of the manufacturing facilities utilized in our products, there can be no assurance that we, or our CMOs, can resolve these manufacturing deficiencies on a timely basis, if at all. Any manufacturing-related disruptions could create significant demand on our limited capital resources, and there can be no assurance that we would be able to continue as a going concern.
Our ability to source APIs and drug products is also dependent on providers of logistical services who may be subject to disruptions that we cannot predict or sufficiently plan around. Accordingly, while we do not currently anticipate shortages of supply, circumstances could arise in which we will not have adequate supplies to timely meet our requirements or market demand for a particular drug product could outstrip the ability of our supply source to timely manufacture and deliver the product, thereby causing us to lose sales. In addition, our ability to make a profit on the sale of our drug products depends on our ability to obtain favorable pricing for these arrangements.
If problems arise during the manufacture of a batch of our drug products, that batch of product may have to be discarded. This could, among other things, lead to increased costs, lost revenue, damage to customer relations, time and expense spent investigating the cause of the problem and, depending on the cause, similar losses with respect to other batches or products. If problems are not discovered before the product is released to the market, recall and product liability costs may also be incurred. To the extent that one of our suppliers experiences significant manufacturing problems, this could have a material adverse effect on our revenues and profitability.
Reliance on CMOs entails risks to which we would not be subject if we manufactured products ourselves, including reliance on the third party for regulatory compliance and adherence to the FDA’s current Good Manufacturing Practice (“cGMP”) requirements, the possible breach of the manufacturing agreement by the CMO and the possibility of termination or non-renewal of the agreement by the CMO, based on its own business priorities, at a time that is costly or inconvenient for us. Before we can obtain marketing approval for our drug products, our CMO facilities must be approved by the FDA and typically pass a pre-approval inspection. In order to obtain FDA approval, the FDA must conclude that all of the suppliers’ manufacturing methods, equipment and processes comply with cGMP requirements.
The cGMP requirements govern organization and personnel, buildings and facilities, equipment, control of components and drug product containers and closures, production and process controls, packaging and labeling control, holding and distribution, laboratory controls, records and reports, and returned and salvaged drug products. In addition, our CMOs will be subject to on-going periodic inspection by the FDA and corresponding state and foreign agencies for compliance with their cGMP requirements, regulations and other regulatory standards. We do not have control over our CMOs’ compliance with these regulations and standards. Any failure of our third party manufacturers or us to comply with applicable regulations, including an FDA pre-approval inspection, periodic on-going inspection by the FDA and cGMP requirements, could result in sanctions being imposed on them or us, including warning letters, fines, injunctions, civil penalties, failure of regulatory authorities to grant marketing approval of our products, delay, suspension or withdrawal of approvals, license revocation, seizures or recalls of product, operation restrictions and criminal prosecutions, any of which could significantly and adversely affect our business.
Finally, our business could be adversely impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, or by other public health emergencies. We source some of our APIs and other materials from Asia, including China and South Korea. Due to our current
reliance on these vendors for eflapegrastim and poziotinib supply, we risk disruption in our supply chain (including restrictions on export or shipment), depending on the severity of the coronavirus outbreak and the potential government restrictions placed on our vendors or their transports.
If our suppliers fail to deliver materials and services needed for commercial manufacturing in a timely and sufficient manner or fail to comply with applicable regulations, and if we fail to timely identify and qualify alternative suppliers, our business, financial condition and results of operations would be harmed and the market price of our common stock and other securities could decline.
We must rely on all of our suppliers to comply with relevant regulatory and other legal requirements, including the production of API in accordance with the FDA’s cGMP for drug products. Although we conduct our own inspections and review and/or approve investigations of each supplier, there can be no assurance that the FDA, upon inspection, would find that the supplier is complying with the cGMP requirements, where applicable. If a supplier fails to comply with these requirements or the comparable requirements in foreign countries, regulatory authorities may subject them or us to regulatory action, including criminal prosecutions, fines and suspension of the manufacture of our products. If we are required to find a new or additional supplier, we will need to evaluate that supplier’s ability to provide material that meets regulatory requirements, including cGMP requirements, as well as our specifications and quality requirements, which would require significant time and expense and could delay the production of our drug products. In general, if any of our suppliers is unwilling or unable to meet its supply obligations or if we encounter delays or difficulties in our relationships with manufacturers or suppliers, and we are unable to secure an alternative supply source in a timely manner and on favorable terms, our business, financial condition, and results of operations may be harmed and the market price of our common stock may decline.
Our future sales will depend on coverage and reimbursement from third-party payers and a reduction in the coverage and/or reimbursement for our products could have a material adverse effect on our product sales, business and results of operations.
Upon FDA approval, sales of our products are dependent on the availability and extent of coverage and reimbursement, or level of reimbursement, from third-party payers, including government programs and private insurance plans. Governments and private payers may regulate prices, reimbursement levels and/or access to our products to contain costs or to affect levels of use. We rely in large part on the reimbursement of our products through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid in the U.S., and a reduction in the coverage and/or reimbursement for our products could have a material adverse effect on our product sales, business and results of operations.
A substantial portion of our U.S. business is expected to rely on reimbursement from the U.S. federal government under Medicare Part B coverage. Most of our products furnished to Medicare beneficiaries in both a physician office setting and hospital outpatient setting will be reimbursed under the Medicare Part B Average Sales Price (“ASP”) payment methodology. ASP-based reimbursement of our products under Medicare may be below or could fall below the cost that some medical providers pay for such products, which could materially and adversely affect sales of our products. We also face risks relating to the reporting of pricing data that affect the U.S. reimbursement of and discounts for our products. ASP data are calculated by the manufacturer based on a formula defined by statute and regulation and are then submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”), the agency responsible for administering the Medicare program, on a quarterly basis.
CMS uses those ASP data to determine the applicable reimbursement rates for our products under Medicare Part B. However, the statute, regulations and CMS guidance do not define specific methodologies for all aspects of the reporting of ASP data. For example, CMS has not provided specific guidance regarding administrative fees paid to group purchasing organizations (each a “GPO” and, collectively “GPOs”) in the ASP calculation. CMS directs that manufacturers make “reasonable assumptions” in their calculation of ASP data in the absence of specific CMS guidance on a topic. As a result, we are required to apply our reasonable judgment to certain aspects of calculating ASP data. If our submitted ASP data are incorrect, we may become subject to substantial fines and penalties or other government enforcement actions, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and results of operations.
A breakdown or breach of our information technology systems and cybersecurity efforts could subject us to liability, reputational damage or interrupt the operation of our business.
We rely upon our sophisticated information technology systems and infrastructure to operate our business. In the ordinary course of business, we collect, store and transmit large amounts of confidential information (including, but not limited to, personal information and intellectual property), and we deploy and operate an array of technical and procedural controls to maintain the confidentiality and integrity of such confidential information. Data privacy breaches by those who access our systems, whether by employees or others, may pose a risk that sensitive data, including intellectual property, trade secrets or
personal information belonging to us, our patients, employees, customers or other business partners, may be exposed to unauthorized persons or to the public or otherwise used for unauthorized purposes. We could also experience a business interruption, noncompliance with data privacy laws, theft of confidential information, or reputational damage from industrial espionage attacks, malware or other cyber-attacks, which may compromise our system infrastructure or lead to data leakage, either internally or at our third-party providers. Such attacks are of ever-increasing levels of sophistication, frequency and intensity, and have become increasingly difficult to detect. There can be no assurance that our efforts to protect our data and information technology systems will prevent breakdowns or breaches in our systems (or that of our third-party providers). Any such interruption or breach of our systems or improper use of confidential data could adversely affect our business operations, financial condition, and/or result in the loss of critical or sensitive confidential information or intellectual property, and could result in financial, legal, business and reputational harm to us.
We are also subject to various laws and regulations globally regarding privacy and data protection, including laws and regulations relating to the collection, storage, handling, use, disclosure, transfer and security of personal data. The legislative and regulatory environment regarding privacy and data protection is continuously evolving and developing and the subject of significant attention globally. We are subject to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, which became effective in May 2018, and the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, which became effective in January 2020, each of which contemplate substantial penalties. Failure to comply with these laws could result in significant penalties and could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.
Reports of adverse events or safety concerns involving our in-development products or similar agents, could delay or prevent us from obtaining or maintaining regulatory approval or negatively impact sales.
Our in-development products may cause SAEs. In addition to the risk associated with known SAEs, discovery of previously unknown problems with a product, including adverse events of unanticipated severity or frequency, could interrupt, delay or halt clinical trials of such products, including the FDA-required post-approval studies, and could result in the FDA or other regulatory authorities denying or withdrawing approval of our products for any or all indications. The FDA, other regulatory authorities or we may suspend or terminate clinical trials at any time. We may also be required to update the package inserts based on reports of adverse events or safety concerns or implement a REMS, which could adversely affect such product’s acceptance in the market. In addition, the public perception of our products might be adversely affected, which could harm our business and results of operations and cause the market price of our common stock to decline, even if the concern relates to another company’s product or product candidate. Our planned trials to demonstrate efficacy in a variety of indications and to better manage side effect profiles of certain of our products may not be successful and there are no assurances that patients receiving our products will not experience SAEs in the future.
Future reports of SAEs or safety concerns involving any of our products could adversely affect our business, results of operations and prospects.
Our dependence on key executives, scientists and sales and marketing personnel could impact the development and management of our business.
We are highly dependent upon our ability to attract and retain qualified scientific, technical sales and marketing and managerial personnel. There is intense competition for qualified personnel in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, and we cannot be sure that we will be able to continue to attract and retain the qualified personnel necessary, particularly as business prospects change, for the development and management of our business. Although we do not believe the loss of one individual would materially harm our business, our business might be harmed by the loss of the services of multiple existing personnel, as well as the failure to recruit additional key scientific, technical and managerial personnel in a timely manner. Much of the know-how we have developed resides in our scientific and technical personnel and is not readily transferable to other personnel. We do not have employment agreements with most of our key scientific, technical, or managerial employees, though we have employment agreements with each of our named executive officers. Furthermore, our common stock is currently trading at a price below the exercise price of most of our outstanding stock options. As a result, these “underwater” options are less useful as a motivation and retention tool for our existing employees.
A significant portion of our revenue has historically been derived from a limited number of distributors - and is expected to persist for our in-development drugs upon potential FDA approval.
We expect that a significant portion of our future revenue will depend on sales to a limited number of distributors. Any distributors we may use comprise a significant part of the distribution network for pharmaceutical products in the U.S. and a small number of large distributors and wholesalers control a significant share of the market, which can increase competitive and pricing pressures on pharmaceutical manufacturers, including us. In addition, wholesalers may apply pricing pressure through
their fee-for-service arrangements. Any reduction in the prices we receive for our products could adversely impact our revenues and financial condition. In addition, any individual distributor could choose to stop selling some or all of our products at any time, and without notice. If we lose our relationship with any of our future significant distributors, we would experience disruption and delays in marketing our products and could also experience declines in our revenues, which in turn could materially adversely impact our financial condition.
Our efforts to acquire or in-license and develop additional drug products may fail and/or our in-licensed products may fail to perform as we anticipate, which might limit our ability to grow our business.
To remain competitive and grow our business, our long-term strategy includes the acquisition or in-license of additional drug products. We are actively seeking to acquire, or in-license, additional commercial drug products as well as drug products that have demonstrated positive pre-clinical and/or clinical data. We have certain criteria that we are looking for in any drug product acquisition and in-license and we may not be successful in locating and acquiring, or in-licensing, additional desirable drug products on acceptable terms.
To accomplish our acquisition and in-license strategy, we intend to commit efforts, funds and other resources to research and development and business development. Even with acquired and in-licensed drug products, a high rate of failure is inherent in the development of such products. We must make ongoing substantial expenditures without any assurance that our efforts will be commercially successful. Failure can occur at any point in the process, including after significant funds have been invested. For example, promising new drug product candidates may fail to reach the market or may only have limited commercial success because of efficacy or safety concerns, failure to achieve positive clinical outcomes, inability to obtain necessary regulatory approvals, limited scope of approved uses, excessive costs to manufacture, the failure to establish or maintain intellectual property rights, limited payer coverage or infringement of the intellectual property rights of others.
In addition, many other large and small companies within the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry seek to establish collaborative arrangements for product research and development, or otherwise acquire products in late-stage clinical development, in competition with us. We face additional competition from public and private research organizations, academic institutions and governmental agencies in establishing collaborative arrangements for drug products in late-stage clinical development. Many of the companies and institutions that compete against us have substantially greater capital resources, research and development staffs and facilities than we have, and greater experience in conducting business development activities. These entities represent significant competition to us as we seek to expand our portfolio through the in-license or acquisition of compounds. Finally, while it is not feasible to predict the actual cost of acquiring and developing additional drug products, that cost could be substantial and we may need to obtain additional financing for such purpose, which may further dilute existing stockholders.
Our business depends upon the continued customer support efforts of distributors.
In the U.S., we plan to sell our products to a small number of distributors who in turn will sell-through to patient health care providers. These distributors will also provide multiple logistics services relating to the distribution of drug products, including transportation, warehousing, cross-docking, inventory management, packaging and freight-forwarding. We will not promote products to these distributors and they do not set or determine demand for products. The use of distributors involves certain risks, including, but not limited to, risks that these distributors will:
•not provide us with accurate or timely information regarding their inventories, the number of patients who are using our products or complaints about our products;
•not purchase sufficient inventory on hand to fulfill end user orders in a timely manner;
•be unable to satisfy financial obligations to us or others; and
•cease operations.
Any such actions may result in decreased sales of our products, upon potential FDA approval, which would harm our business.
Adverse economic conditions may have material adverse consequences on our business, results of operations and financial condition as well as our ability to raise additional capital.
Unpredictable and unstable changes in economic conditions, including recession, inflation, increased government intervention, or other changes, may adversely affect our general business strategy. In recent years, we have funded our
operations through a combination of equity and debt offerings and sales of our pharmaceutical products. Based on our current plans and expectations, we believe that we will require additional funding to achieve our goals. We may need to raise these additional funds through public or private debt or equity financings, and any adverse economic conditions could adversely affect our ability to raise funds. If our business deteriorates, we may not be able to maintain compliance with any covenants or representations and warranties in any such financings, which could result in reduced availability of such financings, an event of default under such financings, or could make other sources of financing unavailable to us. Any such event would have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and financial condition.
While we believe we have adequate capital resources to meet our current working capital and capital expenditure requirements, an economic downturn or an increase in our expenses could require us to seek additional financing on less than attractive rates or on terms that are excessively dilutive to existing stockholders. Failure to secure any necessary financing in a timely manner and on favorable terms could have a material adverse effect on our growth strategy, financial performance and stock price and could require us to delay or abandon clinical development plans or plans to acquire additional technology.
Volatile economic conditions may not only limit our access to capital, but may also make it difficult for our customers and us to accurately forecast and plan future business activities, and they could cause businesses to slow spending on our products, which would delay and lengthen future sales cycles. Furthermore, during challenging economic times, our customers may face issues gaining timely access to sufficient credit, which could result in an impairment of their ability to make timely payments to us. In addition, adverse economic conditions could also adversely impact our suppliers’ ability to provide us with materials which would negatively impact on our business, financial condition, and results of operations.
We are a small company relative to our principal competitors, and our limited financial resources may limit our ability to develop and market our drug products.
Many companies, both public and private, including well-known pharmaceutical companies and smaller niche-focused companies, are developing products to treat many, if not all, of the diseases we are pursuing or are currently distributing drug products that directly compete with the drugs that we sell or that we intend to develop, market and distribute.
Competition for branded or proprietary drugs is less driven by price and is more focused on innovation in the treatment of disease, advanced drug delivery and specific clinical benefits over competitive drug therapies. We may not be successful in any or all of our current clinical studies; or if successful, and if one or more of our drug products is approved by the FDA, we may encounter direct competition from other companies who may be developing products for similar or the same indications as our drug products.
Companies that have products on the market or in research and development that target the same indications as our in-development products or new compounds sought include, among others: Amgen, Inc., Coherus BioSciences, Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sandoz, Pfizer, AstraZeneca plc, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Ltd., Janssen Research & Development, Taiho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Cullinan Oncology, LLC, Daiichi-Sankyo Co., Ltd., Genentech, Inc., Gilead Sciences, Inc., Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd., and Novartis International AG.
Many of our competitors are large and well-capitalized companies focusing on a wide range of diseases and drug indications, and have substantially greater financial, research and development, marketing, human and other resources than we do. Furthermore, large pharmaceutical companies have significantly more experience than we do in pre-clinical testing, human clinical trials and regulatory approval procedures, among other things. As a result, our competitors may be more successful than us in developing their products, obtaining regulatory approvals and marketing their products to consumers.
If actual future payments for allowances for discounts, returns, rebates and chargebacks exceed the estimates we made at the time of the sale of our products, our financial position, results of operations, and cash flows may be materially and negatively impacted.
On March 1, 2019, we completed the sale of the Commercial Product Portfolio to Acrotech. We contractually retained all obligations related to our estimated allowances for discounts, returns, rebates and chargebacks for sales made on and prior to such date. Our former FUSILEV, MARQIBO, and BELEODAQ customers are permitted to return purchased products to us beginning at their expiration date and within six months thereafter. Our former EVOMELA customers are permitted to return purchased product beginning at six months prior to its expiration date, and within 12 months following its expiration date (as well as for overstock inventory, as determined by end-users). We authorize returns for damaged products and exchanges for expired products in accordance with our returned goods policy and procedures. Also, like our competitors, we also give credits for chargebacks to wholesale customers that have contracts with us for their sales to hospitals, GPOs, pharmacies or other retail customers. The product revenue we recognized through March 1, 2019 was net of estimated allowances for discounts, returns,
rebates and chargebacks. Such estimates required subjective and complex judgment due to the need to make estimates about matters that are inherently uncertain. Based on industry practice, pharmaceutical companies, including us, have liberal return policies.
A chargeback is the difference between the price the wholesaler pays us (wholesale acquisition cost, or WAC) and the price that the wholesaler’s customer pays for our product (contracted customer). Our products were subject to certain programs with federal government qualified entities whereby pricing on products is discounted to such entities and results in a chargeback claim to us, or for us to bill certain qualifying Public Health Service end-users at government-mandated pricing. To the extent that our sales to discount purchasers, such as federal government qualified entities, increases, chargeback claims will also increase. There may be significant lag time between our original sale to the wholesaler and our receipt of the corresponding government chargeback claims from our wholesalers.
Our products are subject to state government-managed Medicaid programs, whereby rebates for purchases are issued to participating state governments. These rebates arise when the patient treated with our products is covered under Medicaid. Our calculations require us to estimate end-user and patient mix to determine which of our sales will likely be subject to these rebates. There is a significant time lag in us receiving these rebate notices (generally several months after our sale is made). Our estimates are based on our historical claims from participating state governments, as supplemented by management’s judgment.
Although we believe that we have sufficient allowances, actual results may differ significantly from our estimated allowances for discounts, returns, rebates and chargebacks. Changes in estimates and assumptions based upon actual results may have a material impact on our financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. Such changes to estimates will be made to the financial statements in the year in which the estimate is changed. In addition, our financial position, results of operations and cash flows may be materially and negatively impacted if actual future payments for allowances, discounts, returns, rebates and chargebacks exceed the estimates we made at the time of the sale of our products.
Our business and operations are subject to risks related to climate change.
The long-term effects of global climate change present risks to our business. Extreme weather or other conditions caused by climate change could adversely impact our supply chain and the availability and cost of raw materials and components required for the operation of our business. Such conditions could also result in physical damage to products, plants and distribution centers, as well as the infrastructure and facilities and other customers. In addition, regulations intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions, such as taxes on fuel and energy, to mitigate the impacts of climate change may increase, which could increase our operating costs and the costs charged by suppliers. These events could adversely affect our operations and our financial performance.
Our business strategy requires that we engage in transactions that increase our capital requirements, cause us to incur debt or assume contingent liabilities, and possibly dilute our stockholders.
We actively evaluate various strategic transactions on an ongoing basis, including licensing or otherwise acquiring complementary products, technologies or businesses. Any potential acquisitions or in-licensing transactions may entail numerous risks, including but not limited to:
•risks associated with satisfying the closing conditions relating to such transactions and realizing their anticipated benefits;
•increased operating expenses and cash requirements;
•difficulty in conforming standards, procedures and policies, business cultures and compensation structures;
•difficulty integrating acquired technologies, products and personnel with our existing business;
•difficulty conforming acquired operations, such as corporate and administrative functions, sales and marketing, or information technology and accounting systems with our existing business;
•diversion of management’s attention in connection with both negotiating the acquisition or license and integrating the business, technology or product;
•retention of key employees;
•uncertainties in our ability to maintain key business relationships of any acquired entities;
•strain on managerial and operational resources;
•exposure to regulatory, compliance and legal risks of the acquired entities;
•tax costs or inefficiencies associated with integrating operations;
•modifications to operating control standards to comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder;
•difficulty coordinating geographically dispersed organizations;
•exposure to unforeseen liabilities of acquired companies or products or companies or products in which we invest; and
•potential costly and time-consuming litigation, including stockholder lawsuits.
As a result of these or other problems and risks, businesses, technologies or products we acquire or invest in or obtain licenses to may not produce the revenues, earnings or business synergies that we anticipated. In addition, acquired or licensed products may not perform as expected or we may not obtain necessary regulatory approvals on our anticipated timeline or at all.
Accordingly, we may incur higher costs and realize lower revenues than we had anticipated. We cannot assure you that any acquisitions or investments we have made or may make in the future will be completed or that, if completed, the acquired business, licenses, investments, products, or technologies will generate sufficient revenue to offset the negative costs or other negative effects on our business. Failure to effectively manage our growth through acquisition or in-licensing transactions could adversely affect our growth prospects, business, results of operations, financial condition, and cash flow.
In addition, in connection with acquisitions and in-licensing transactions, we may spend significant amounts of capital, issue dilutive securities, assume or incur significant debt obligations or contingent liabilities, and acquire intangible assets that could result in significant future amortization expense and write-offs. Moreover, we may not be able to locate suitable acquisition opportunities and this inability could impair our ability to grow or obtain access to technology or products that may be important to the development of our business. Even if appropriate opportunities are available, we may not be able to successfully identify them or we may not have the financial resources necessary to pursue them, and if pursued, we may be unable to structure and execute transactions in on our anticipated timeframe, or at all. Other pharmaceutical companies, many of which may have substantially greater financial, marketing and sales resources than we do, compete with us for these opportunities.
Even if we are able to successfully identify and acquire complementary products, technologies or businesses, we cannot assure you that we will be able to successfully manage the risks associated with integrating acquired products, technologies or businesses or the risks arising from anticipated and unanticipated problems in connection with an acquisition or in-licensing transaction. Further, while we seek to mitigate risks and liabilities of potential acquisitions and in-licensing transactions through, among other things, due diligence, there may be risks and liabilities that such due diligence efforts fail to discover, that are not disclosed to us, or that we inadequately assess. Any failure in identifying and managing these risks and uncertainties effectively would have a material adverse effect on our business. Additionally, actual costs and sales synergies, if achieved at all, may be lower than we expect and may take longer to achieve than we anticipate. Furthermore, the products of companies we acquire may overlap with our products or those of our customers, creating conflicts with existing relationships or with other commitments that are detrimental to the integrated businesses.
If we are unable to successfully integrate our acquisitions with our existing business, we may not obtain the advantages that the acquisitions were intended to create, which may materially adversely affect our business, results of operations, financial condition and cash flows, our ability to develop and introduce new products and the market price of our stock.
Our collaborations with outside scientists may be subject to change, which could limit our access to their expertise.
We work with scientific advisors and collaborators at research institutions. These scientists are not our employees and may have other commitments that would limit their availability to us. If a conflict of interest between their work for us and their work for another entity arises, we may lose their services, which could negatively impact our research and development activities.
We may rely on CROs and other third parties to conduct clinical trials and, in such cases, we are unable to directly control the timing, conduct and expense of our clinical trials.
We may rely, in full or in part, on third parties to conduct our clinical trials. In such situations, we have less control over the conduct of our clinical trials, the timing and completion of the trials, the required reporting of adverse events and the management of data developed through the trial than would be the case if we were relying entirely upon our own staff.
Communicating with outside parties can also be challenging, potentially leading to mistakes as well as difficulties in coordinating activities. Outside parties may have staffing difficulties, may undergo changes in priorities or may become financially distressed, adversely affecting their willingness or ability to conduct our trials. We may experience unexpected cost increases that are beyond our control. Problems with the timeliness or quality of the work of a CRO may lead us to seek to terminate the relationship and use an alternative service provider. However, making this change may be costly and may delay our trials, and contractual restrictions may make such a change difficult or impossible. Additionally, it may be challenging or impossible to find a replacement organization that can conduct our trials in an acceptable manner and at an acceptable cost.
Competition for patients in conducting clinical trials may prevent or delay product development and strain our limited financial resources.
Many pharmaceutical companies are conducting clinical trials involving patients with the disease indications that our drug products target. As a result, we must compete with them for clinical sites, physicians and the limited number of patients who fulfill the stringent requirements for participation in clinical trials. Also, due to the confidential nature of clinical trials, we do not know how many of the eligible patients may be enrolled in competing studies and who are consequently not available to us for our clinical trials. Our clinical trials may be delayed or terminated due to the inability to enroll enough patients. Patient enrollment depends on many factors, including the size of the patient population, the nature of the trial protocol, the proximity of patients to clinical sites and the eligibility criteria for the study. The delay or inability to meet planned patient enrollment may result in increased costs and delays or termination of the trial, which could have a harmful effect on our ability to develop products.
We may have conflicts with our third-party development partners that could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of our drug products.
We may have conflicts with our third-party development partners, such as conflicts concerning the interpretation of pre-clinical or clinical data, the achievement of milestones, the interpretation of contractual obligations, payments for services, development obligations or the ownership of intellectual property developed during our collaboration. If any conflicts arise with any of our third-party development partners, such partner may act in a manner that is adverse to our best interests. Any such disagreement could result in one or more of the following, each of which could delay or prevent the development or commercialization of our drug product, and in turn prevent us from generating revenues from such drug product:
•unwillingness on the part of a third-party development partner to pay us milestone payments or royalties that we believe are due to us under a collaboration;
•uncertainty regarding ownership of intellectual property rights arising from our collaborative activities, which could prevent us from entering into additional collaborations;
•unwillingness to cooperate in the manufacture of the product, including providing us with product data or materials;
•unwillingness to keep us informed regarding the progress of its development and commercialization activities or to permit public disclosure of the results of those activities;
•initiation of litigation or alternative dispute resolution options by either party to resolve the dispute;
•attempts by either party to terminate the collaboration;
•our ability to maintain or defend our intellectual property rights may be compromised by our partner’s acts or omissions;
•a third-party development partner may utilize our intellectual property rights in such a way as to invite litigation that could jeopardize or invalidate our intellectual property rights or expose us to potential liability;
•a third-party development partner may change the focus of its development and commercialization efforts due to internal reorganizations, mergers, consolidations or otherwise;
•unwillingness to fully fund or commit sufficient resources to the testing, marketing, distribution or development of our products;
•unwillingness or inability to fulfill their obligations to us due to the pursuit of alternative products, conflicts of interest that arise or changes in business strategy or other business issues; and/or
•we may not be able to guarantee supplies of development or marketed products.
Given these risks, it is possible that any collaborative arrangements which we have or could enter into may not be successful.
The potential size of the market for our drug products is uncertain.
We often provide estimates of the number of people who suffer from the diseases that our drugs are targeting. However, there is limited information available regarding the actual size of these patient populations. In addition, it is uncertain whether the results from previous or future clinical trials of drug products will be observed in broader patient populations, and the number of patients who may benefit from our drug products may be significantly smaller than the estimated patient populations.
If our employees, representatives or agents fail to comply with regulatory standards and requirements, we could be exposed to financial, reputational or other harm.
Our business and financial condition could be adversely affected to the extent that our employees, representatives or agents fail to:
•comply with FDA regulations or similar regulations of similar regulatory authorities in other countries;
•provide accurate information to the FDA or similar regulatory authorities in other countries;
•comply with manufacturing standards we, the FDA or similar authorities in other countries have established;
•comply with federal and state healthcare fraud and abuse laws and regulations or similar laws and regulations
•established and enforced by comparable foreign regulatory authorities;
•comply with the provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or the FCPA; or
•report financial information or clinical or preclinical data accurately.
In particular, sales, marketing and business arrangements in the healthcare industry are subject to extensive laws and regulations intended to prevent fraud, kickbacks, self-dealing and other abusive practices. These laws and regulations may restrict or prohibit a wide range of pricing, discounting, marketing and promotion, sales commission, customer incentive programs and other business arrangements. Misconduct by our employees, representatives or agents could also involve the improper use of information obtained in the course of clinical trials, which could result in regulatory sanctions and serious harm to our reputation. It is not always possible to identify and deter employee misconduct, and the precautions we take to detect and prevent these activities may not be effective in controlling unknown or unmanaged risks or losses, or in protecting us from governmental investigations or other actions or lawsuits stemming from a failure to be in compliance with such laws or regulations. If any such actions are instituted against us, even if we are ultimately exonerated, we could incur substantial costs and expenses in an effort to defend ourselves or to assert our rights and any such actions could result in reputational harm to us or have a significant impact on our business and results of operations, including the imposition of significant fines or other sanctions.
We have a history of net losses. We expect to continue to incur net losses and may not achieve profitability for some time, if at all.
We have incurred net losses in each of the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020. We have incurred these losses principally from costs incurred in our research and development programs and from our selling, general and administrative expenses. We expect that in the foreseeable future we will continue to spend substantial amounts on research and development to further develop and potentially commercialize poziotinib and eflapegrastim. Accordingly, we expect to continue to incur net losses in the foreseeable future and may not achieve profitability for some time, if at all. Even if we do achieve profitability, we may not be able to sustain or increase profitability on a quarterly or annual basis. If we are unable to achieve and sustain profitability, the market value of our common stock will likely decline.
Risks Related to Our Industry
The future sale of our products will be (and has historically been) subject to regulatory approvals and requirements. If we are unable to obtain regulatory approval for our product candidates, or if we fail to comply with governmental regulations, we will be limited in our ability to commercialize our products and product candidates and/or will be subject to penalties.
We are not permitted to market or promote any of our product candidates before we receive regulatory approval from the FDA or comparable foreign regulatory authorities, and we may never receive such regulatory approval for any of our product
candidates. Obtaining regulatory approval of a new drug is an uncertain, lengthy and expensive process, and success is never guaranteed. Despite the time, resources and effort expended, failure can occur at any stage. During each stage, there is a substantial risk that we will encounter serious obstacles that will further delay us and add substantial expense, that we will develop a product with limited potential for commercial success, or that we will be forced to abandon a product in which we have invested substantial amounts of time and money.
These risks may include failure of the product candidate in preclinical studies, difficulty enrolling patients in clinical trials, clinical trial holds or other delays in completing clinical trials, delays in completing formulation and other testing and work necessary to support an application for regulatory approval, adverse reactions to the product candidate or other safety concerns, insufficient clinical trial data to support the safety or efficacy of the product candidate or to differentiate our product candidate from competitors, an inability to manufacture sufficient quantities of the product candidate for development or commercialization activities in a timely and cost-effective manner, and failure to obtain, or delays in obtaining, the required regulatory approvals for the product candidate or the facilities in which it is manufactured. In order to receive approval from the FDA for each product candidate, we must demonstrate that the new drug product is safe and effective for its intended use and that the manufacturing processes for the product candidate comply with the FDA’s cGMPs, which include requirements related to production processes, quality control and assurance, and recordkeeping. The FDA has substantial discretion in the approval process for human medicines.
The FDA and comparable agencies in foreign countries impose many requirements related to the drug development process through lengthy and rigorous clinical testing and data collection procedures, and other costly and time consuming compliance procedures. While we believe that we are currently in compliance with applicable FDA regulations, if we or our partners, the CROs or CMOs with which we have relationships, fail to comply with the regulations applicable to our clinical testing, the FDA may delay, suspend or cancel our clinical trials, or the FDA might not accept the test results. The FDA, an institutional review board, third party investigators, any comparable regulatory agency in another country, or we, may suspend clinical trials at any time if the trials expose subjects participating in such trials to unacceptable health risks. Further, human clinical testing may not show any current or future drug product to be safe and effective to the satisfaction of the FDA or comparable regulatory agencies, or the data derived from the clinical tests may be unsuitable for submission to the FDA or other regulatory agencies. Once we submit an application seeking approval to market a drug product, the FDA or other regulatory agencies may not issue their approvals on a timely basis, if at all. If we are delayed or fail to obtain these approvals, our business and prospects may be significantly damaged. In addition, any regulatory approvals that we receive for our future product candidates may also be subject to limitations on the indicated uses for which they may be marketed or contain requirements for potentially cost prohibitive post-marketing follow-up studies and surveillance to monitor the safety and efficacy of the product.
If we obtain regulatory approval for our drug products, we, our partners, our manufacturers, and other contract entities will continue to be subject to extensive requirements by a number of international, federal, state and local agencies. These regulations will impact many aspects of our operations, including testing, research and development, manufacturing, safety, effectiveness, labeling, storage, quality control, adverse event reporting, record keeping, approval, advertising and promotion of our future products. The FDA and foreign regulatory authorities strictly regulate the promotional claims that may be made about prescription products and our product labeling, advertising and promotion is subject to continuing regulatory review. Physicians may nevertheless prescribe our product to their patients in a manner that is inconsistent with the approved label, or that is off-label. The FDA and other regulatory agencies actively enforce the laws and regulations prohibiting the promotion of off-label uses, and if we are found to have improperly promoted off-label uses we may be subject to significant sanctions, civil and criminal fines and injunctions prohibiting us from engaging in specified promotional conduct.
In addition, we are subject to the federal False Claims Act, or the FCA, as well as the false claims laws of several states. The FCA prohibits any person from knowingly presenting, or causing to be presented, a false claim for payment to the federal government, or knowingly making, or causing to be made, a false statement to get a false claim paid. Suits filed under the FCA, known as “qui tam” actions, can be brought by any private individual on behalf of the government and such private individuals, commonly known as “whistleblowers,” may share in any amounts paid by the entity to the government in fines or settlement. The filing of qui tam actions has caused a number of pharmaceutical, medical device and other healthcare companies to have to defend a FCA action. When an entity is determined to have violated the FCA, it may be required to pay up to three times the actual damages sustained by the government, plus civil penalties for each separate false claim. Various states also have enacted laws modeled after the federal FCA.
In order to comply with these laws, we have implemented a compliance program designed to identify, prevent and mitigate risk through the implementation of compliance policies and training systems. We cannot guarantee that our compliance program will be sufficient or effective, that our employees will comply with our policies, that our employees will notify us of any violation of our policies, that we will have the ability to take appropriate and timely corrective action in response to any
such violation, or that we will make decisions and take actions that will necessarily limit or avoid liability for whistleblower claims that individuals, such as employees or former employees, may bring against us or that governmental authorities may prosecute against us based on information provided by individuals. If we are found to be in violation of any of the laws and regulations described above or other applicable state and federal healthcare laws, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, disgorgement, contractual damages, reputational harm, imprisonment, diminished profits and future earnings, exclusion from government healthcare reimbursement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, additional reporting requirements and oversight if we become subject to a corporate integrity agreement or similar agreement to resolve allegations of non-compliance with these laws, and/or the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, results of operations and growth prospects. Any action against us for violation of these laws or regulations, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business. Moreover, achieving and sustaining compliance with applicable federal, state and foreign healthcare laws is costly and time-consuming for our management.
Failure to obtain regulatory approval outside the U.S. will prevent us from marketing our product candidates abroad.
We intend to market certain of our future product candidates in and outside of the U.S. In order to market our future product candidates in the EU and many other foreign jurisdictions, we must obtain separate regulatory approvals according to the applicable domestic laws and regulations. We have had limited interactions with foreign regulatory authorities, and the approval procedures vary among countries and can involve additional testing, and the time required to obtain approval may differ from that required to obtain FDA approval. The foreign regulatory approval process may include all of the risks associated with obtaining FDA approval as well as other risks specific to the jurisdictions in which we may seek approval. Approval by the FDA does not guarantee approval by regulatory authorities in other countries, and approval by one or more foreign regulatory authorities does not necessarily ensure approval by regulatory authorities in other countries.
A failure or delay in obtaining regulatory approval in one country may have a negative effect on the regulatory approval process in others. We may not obtain foreign regulatory approvals on a timely basis, if at all. We may not be able to file for foreign regulatory approvals and may not receive necessary approvals to commercialize our existing and future product candidates in any market.
Even after we receive regulatory approval to market our drug products, the market may not be receptive to our drug products upon their commercial introduction, which would negatively impact our ability to achieve profitability.
Our drug products may not gain market acceptance among physicians, patients, healthcare payers and the medical community. The degree of market acceptance of any approved drug products will depend on a number of factors, including:
•the effectiveness of the drug product;
•the prevalence and severity of any side effects;
•potential advantages or disadvantages over alternative treatments;
•relative convenience and ease of administration;
•the strength of marketing and distribution support;
•the price of the drug product, both in absolute terms and relative to alternative treatments; and
•sufficient third-party coverage and reimbursement.
If our drug products receive regulatory approval but do not achieve an adequate level of acceptance by physicians, healthcare payers and patients, we may not generate drug product revenues sufficient to attain profitability.
In addition, we have only licensed the rights to develop and market our products in limited territories. Other companies can market and sell the same products in other parts of the world upon local regulatory approvals. If negative publicity is associated with our products or similar products sold by third parties in their territories, our own efforts to successfully market and sell our products in our territories may be adversely impacted.
Guidelines and recommendations published by various organizations can reduce the use of our products.
Government agencies, such as the CMS, promulgate regulations, and issue guidelines, directly applicable to us and to our products. In addition, third parties such as professional societies, practice management groups, insurance carriers, physicians, private health/science foundations and organizations involved in various diseases from time to time may publish guidelines or
recommendations to healthcare providers, administrators and payers, and patient communities. Recommendations may relate to such matters as utilization, dosage, route of administration and use of related therapies and coverage and reimbursement of our products by government and private payers. Third-party organizations like the above have in the past made recommendations about our products. Recommendations or guidelines that are followed by patients and healthcare providers could result in decreased utilization and/or dosage of our products, any of which could adversely affect our product sales and operating results materially.
Legislative or regulatory reform of the healthcare system and pharmaceutical industry related to pricing, coverage or reimbursement may hurt our ability to sell our products profitably or at all.
Our ability to commercialize any products successfully will depend in part on the availability of coverage and reimbursement from third-party payers such as government authorities, private health insurers, health maintenance organizations including pharmacy benefit managers and other health care-related organizations, in both the U.S. and foreign markets. Even if we succeed in bringing one or more products to market, the amount reimbursed for our products may be insufficient to allow us to compete effectively and could adversely affect our profitability. Coverage and reimbursement by governmental and other third-party payers may depend upon a number of factors, including a governmental or other third-party payer’s determination that use of a product includes but is not limited to:
•a covered benefit under its health plan;
•safe, effective and medically necessary;
•appropriate for the specific patient;
•cost-effective; and
•neither experimental nor investigational.
Obtaining coverage and reimbursement approval for a product from each third-party and governmental payer is a time-consuming and costly process that could require us to provide supporting scientific, clinical and cost-effectiveness data for the use of our products to each payer. We may not be able to provide data sufficient to obtain coverage and adequate reimbursement.
The high cost of pharmaceuticals continues to generate substantial government interest. It is possible that proposals will be adopted, or existing regulations that affect the coverage and reimbursement of pharmaceutical and other medical products may change, that may impact our products currently on the market and any of our products approved for marketing in the future. Cost control initiatives could decrease the price that we receive for any of our products or product candidates. In addition, third-party payers are increasingly challenging the price and cost-effectiveness of medical products and services. Significant uncertainty exists as to the coverage and reimbursement status of newly-approved pharmaceutical products. Future developments may require us to decrease the price that we charge for our products, thereby negatively affecting our financial results.
In some foreign countries, particularly in the EU, prescription drug pricing is subject to governmental control. Drug pricing may be made against a reference price set by the healthcare providers as a measure for healthcare cost containment. Pricing negotiations with governmental authorities can take considerable time after the receipt of marketing approval for a product. If coverage and reimbursement of our products are unavailable or limited in scope or amount, or if pricing is set at unsatisfactory levels for the purpose of adoption of these products in the national health services in these jurisdictions, our profitability will likely be negatively affected.
If we market products in a manner that violates federal or state health care fraud and abuse laws, we may be subject to civil or criminal penalties, including exclusion from participation in government health care programs.
As a pharmaceutical company, even though we do not provide healthcare services or receive payments directly from or bill directly to Medicare, Medicaid or other third-party payers for our products, we are subject to certain federal and state healthcare laws and regulations pertaining to fraud and abuse applicable to our business. Violations of fraud and abuse laws may be punishable by criminal and/or civil sanctions, including fines and/or exclusion or suspension from federal and state health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and debarment from contracting with the U.S. government.
The laws that may affect our ability to operate include the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, which prohibits, among other things, knowingly and willfully offering, paying, soliciting, or receiving remuneration to induce or in return for purchasing, leasing, ordering, or arranging for the purchase, lease or order of any health care item or service reimbursable under Medicare,
Medicaid or other federally-financed health care programs. This statute applies to arrangements between pharmaceutical manufacturers and prescribers, purchasers and formulary managers. Although there are a number of statutory exceptions and regulatory safe harbors protecting certain common activities, the exceptions and safe harbors are drawn narrowly, and practices that involve remuneration intended to induce prescribing, purchases or recommendations may be subject to scrutiny if they do not qualify for an exception or safe harbor.
Pharmaceutical companies have been prosecuted under these laws for a variety of alleged promotional and marketing activities, such as providing free product to customers with the expectation that the customers would bill federal programs for the product; reporting to pricing services inflated average wholesale prices that were then used by federal programs to set reimbursement rates; engaging in off-label promotion that caused claims to be submitted to Medicaid for non-covered off-label uses; and submitting inflated best price information to the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Federal enforcement agencies have also recently scrutinized product and patient assistance programs, including manufacturer reimbursement support services as well as relationships with specialty pharmacies. If our past or present operations are found to be in violation of any of such laws or any other governmental regulations that may apply to us, we may be subject to penalties, including civil and criminal penalties, damages, fines, exclusion from federal health care programs and/or the curtailment or restructuring of our operations. Any penalties, damages, fines, curtailment, or restructuring of our operations could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against them, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 also created prohibitions against health care fraud and false statements relating to health care matters. The health care fraud statute prohibits knowingly and willfully executing a scheme to defraud any health care benefit program, including private payers. The false statements statute prohibits knowingly and willfully falsifying, concealing or covering up a material fact or making any materially false, fictitious or fraudulent statement in connection with the delivery of or payment for health care benefits, items or services.
In addition, there has been a recent trend of increased federal and state regulation of payments made to physicians. The federal “Sunshine” requirements pursuant to the PPACA imposed new requirements on (i) manufacturers of drugs, devices, biologics and medical supplies for which payment is available under Medicare, Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (with certain exceptions) to report annually to CMS information related to payments or other “transfers of value” made to physicians (defined to include doctors, dentists, optometrists, podiatrists and chiropractors and teaching hospitals), and (ii) applicable manufacturers and GPOs to report annually to CMS ownership and investment interests held by physicians (as defined above) and their immediate family members and payments or other “transfers of value” to such physician owners and their immediate family members. Manufacturers were required to begin data collection on August 1, 2013 and to report such data to the government by March 31, 2014 and by the 90th calendar day of each year thereafter. Failure to submit the required information may result in civil monetary penalties of up an aggregate of $150,000 per year (and up to an aggregate of $1 million per year for “knowing failures”), for all payments, transfers of value or ownership or investment interests not reported in an annual submission, and may result in liability under other federal laws or regulations.
The majority of states also have statutes or regulations similar to these federal laws, which apply to items and services reimbursed under Medicaid and other state programs, or, in several states, apply regardless of the payer. In addition, some states have laws that require pharmaceutical companies to adopt comprehensive compliance programs. For example, under California law, pharmaceutical companies must comply with both the April 2003 Office of Inspector General Compliance Program Guidance for Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (“PhRMA”) Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals, as amended. Certain states also mandate the tracking and reporting of gifts, compensation, and other remuneration paid by us to physicians and other health care providers. We have adopted and implemented a compliance program designed to comply with applicable federal, state and local requirements wherever we operate, including but not limited to the laws of the states of California and Nevada.
Although compliance programs can mitigate the risk of investigation and prosecution for violations of these laws, the risks cannot be entirely eliminated. Compliance with these laws and regulations is costly and materially affects our business. Among other effects, health care regulations substantially increase the time, difficulty and costs incurred in obtaining and maintaining approval to market newly developed and existing products. Any action against us for violation of these laws, even if we successfully defend against it, could cause us to incur significant legal expenses and divert our management’s attention from the operation of our business. We expect compliance with these regulations to require significant technical expertise and capital investment to ensure the reasonable design and operation of an effective compliance program.
Because of the breadth of these laws and the narrowness of the safe harbors, it is possible that some of our business activities could be subject to challenge under one or more of such laws. The PPACA also made several important changes to the
federal Anti-Kickback Statute, false claims laws, and health care fraud statute by weakening the intent requirement under the anti-kickback and health care fraud statutes that may make it easier for the government, or whistleblowers to charge such fraud and abuse violations. A person or entity no longer needs to have actual knowledge of this statute or specific intent to violate it. In addition, the Health Care Reform Law provides that the government may assert that a claim including items or services resulting from a violation of the federal anti-kickback statute constitutes a false or fraudulent claim for purposes of the false claims statutes. In addition, the PPACA increases penalties for fraud and abuse violations. If our past, present or future operations are found to be in violation of any of the laws described above or other similar governmental regulations to which we are subject, we may incur significant civil, criminal and administrative penalties, damages, fines, imprisonment, exclusion from government funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid, and the curtailment or restructuring of our operations, any of which could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and negatively impact our financial results.
We could be adversely affected by violations of the FCPA and other worldwide anti-bribery laws.
The FCPA prohibits U.S. companies and their respective representatives from offering, promising, authorizing, or making improper payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business abroad. In many countries, the health care professionals we regularly interact with meet the definition of a foreign government official for purposes of the FCPA. We have policies and procedures in place to ensure that we comply with the FCPA and similar laws; however, there is no assurance that such policies and procedures will protect us against liability under the FCPA or related laws for actions taken by our employees and intermediaries with respect to our business. Failure to comply with the FCPA and related laws could disrupt our business and lead to criminal and civil penalties including fines, suspension of our ability to do business with the federal government and denial of government reimbursement of our products, which could result in a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, results of operations and cash flows. We could also be adversely affected by any allegation that we violated such laws.
Pricing for pharmaceutical products has come under increasing scrutiny by governments, legislative bodies and enforcement agencies. Changes in laws and regulations that control drug pricing for government programs allow for negotiated pricing or limit product coverage, and reduced reimbursements may adversely impact our operating results and our business.
Many companies in our industry have received a governmental request for documents and information relating to drug pricing and patient assistance programs. We may become subject to similar requests, which would require us to incur significant expense and result in distraction for our management team. Additionally, to the extent there are findings, or even allegations, of improper conduct on the part of the Company or its employees, such findings or allegations could result in negative publicity or other negative actions that could harm our reputation; cause changes in our product pricing and distribution strategies; reduce demand for our approved products and/or reduce reimbursement of approved products, including by federal health care programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and state health care programs.
Further, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA), among other things, amended the Affordable Care Act, effective January 1, 2019, to close the coverage gap in most Medicare drug plans, commonly referred to as the “donut hole”. In December 2018, CMS published a final rule permitting further collections and payments to and from certain Affordable Care Act qualified health plans and health insurance issuers under the Affordable Care Act risk adjustment program in response to the outcome of federal district court litigation regarding the method CMS uses to determine this risk adjustment. On June 17, 2021 the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed a challenge on procedural grounds that argued the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional in its entirety because the “individual mandate” was repealed by Congress. Thus, the Affordable Care Act will remain in effect in its current form. Further, prior to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling, on January 28, 2021, President Biden issued an executive order to initiate a special enrollment period for purposes of obtaining health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. The executive order also instructs certain governmental agencies to review and reconsider their existing policies and rules that limit access to healthcare, including among others, reexamining Medicaid demonstration projects and waiver programs that include work requirements, and policies that create unnecessary barriers to obtaining access to health insurance coverage through Medicaid or the Affordable Care Act. It is unclear how such challenges and the healthcare reform measures of the Biden administration will impact the Affordable Care Act.
Further legislation or regulation could be passed that could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations. Other legislative changes have been proposed and adopted since the Affordable Care Act was enacted. For example, in August 2011, President Obama signed into law the Budget Control Act of 2011, which, among other things, created the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to recommend to Congress proposals in spending reductions. The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction did not achieve a targeted deficit reduction of at least $1.2 trillion for fiscal years 2012 through 2021, triggering the legislation’s automatic reduction to several government programs. This includes aggregate reductions to Medicare payments to providers of up to 2% per fiscal year, which went into effect beginning on April 1, 2013 and will stay in effect through 2031 unless additional Congressional action is taken. However, COVID-19 relief support legislation suspended
the 2% Medicare sequester from May 1, 2020 through March 31, 2022. Under current legislation, the actual reduction in Medicare payments will vary from 1% in 2022 to up to 3% in the final fiscal year of this sequester. Additionally, on March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 into law, which eliminates the statutory Medicaid drug rebate cap, currently set at 100% of a drug’s average manufacturer price, for single source and innovator multiple source drugs, beginning January 1, 2024. In January 2013, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 was signed into law, which, among other things, further reduced Medicare payments to several types of providers, including hospitals, imaging centers and cancer treatment centers, and increased the statute of limitations period for the government to recover overpayments to providers from three to five years.
Additionally, there has been increasing legislative and enforcement interest in the United States with respect to specialty drug pricing practices. Specifically, there have been several recent U.S. Congressional inquiries and federal and state legislative activity designed to, among other things, bring more transparency to drug pricing, reduce the cost of prescription drugs under Medicare, review the relationship between pricing and manufacturer patient programs, and reform government program reimbursement methodologies for drugs. At the federal level, the Trump administration used several means to propose or implement drug pricing reform, including through federal budget proposals, executive orders and policy initiatives. For example, on July 24, 2020 and September 13, 2020, the Trump administration announced several executive orders related to prescription drug pricing that attempt to implement several of the administration’s proposals. The FDA also released a final rule and guidance in September 2020, implementing a portion of the importation executive order providing pathways for states to build and submit importation plans for drugs from Canada. Further, on November 20, 2020, HHS finalized a regulation removing safe harbor protection for price reductions from pharmaceutical manufacturers to plan sponsors under Part D, either directly or through pharmacy benefit managers, unless the price reduction is required by law. The implementation of the rule has been delayed by the Biden administration from January 1, 2022 to January 1, 2023 in response to ongoing litigation. The rule also creates a new safe harbor for price reductions reflected at the point-of-sale, as well as a new safe harbor for certain fixed fee arrangements between pharmacy benefit managers and manufacturers, the implementation of which have also been delayed pending review by the Biden administration until January 1, 2023. On November 20, 2020, CMS issued an interim final rule implementing President Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order, which would tie Medicare Part B payments for certain physician-administered drugs to the lowest price paid in other economically advanced countries. As a result of litigation challenging the Most Favored Nation model, on December 27, 2021, CMS published a final rule that rescinded the Most Favored Nation model interim final rule.
In July 2021, the Biden administration released an executive order, “Promoting Competition in the American Economy,” with multiple provisions aimed at prescription drugs. In response to Biden’s executive order, on September 9, 2021, HHS released a Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices that outlines principles for drug pricing reform and sets out a variety of potential legislative policies that Congress could pursue to advance these principles. No legislation or administrative actions have been finalized to implement these principles. In addition, Congress is considering drug pricing as part of other reform initiatives. Individual states in the United States have also become increasingly active in passing legislation and implementing regulations designed to control pharmaceutical product pricing, including price or patient reimbursement constraints, discounts, restrictions on certain product access and marketing cost disclosure and transparency measures, and, in some cases, designed to encourage importation from other countries and bulk purchasing.
We anticipate that these and other healthcare reform efforts will continue to result in additional downward pressure on coverage and the price that we receive for any approved product, and could seriously harm our business. Any reduction in reimbursement from Medicare and other government programs may result in a similar reduction in payments from private payors. The implementation of cost containment measures or other healthcare reforms may prevent us from being able to generate revenue, attain profitability, or commercialize our products. Such reforms could have an adverse effect on anticipated revenue from product candidates that we may successfully develop and for which we may obtain regulatory approval and may affect our overall financial condition and ability to develop product candidates. Further, it is possible that additional governmental action will be taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Risks Related to Our Common Stock
Future issuances of our common stock or instruments convertible or exercisable into our common stock, may materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock and cause dilution to our existing stockholders.
We may obtain additional funds through public or private debt or equity financings in the near future. If we issue additional shares of common stock or instruments convertible into common stock, it may materially and adversely affect the price of our common stock. In the past, we have issued shares of common stock pursuant to at-the-market-issuance sales agreements and we may do so in the future. Certain issuances by us of equity securities may be at or below the prevailing market price of our common stock and may have a dilutive impact on our existing stockholders. In addition, future exercises of some or all of our outstanding options, warrants, or other rights may likewise dilute the ownership interests of our stockholders, and any sales in the public market of any shares of our common stock issuable upon such conversion or exercise, or the
perception that such sales may occur, could adversely affect the prevailing market price of our common stock. These issuances or other dilutive issuances would also cause our per share net income, if any, to decrease in future periods.
The market price and trading volume of our common stock fluctuate significantly and could result in substantial losses for individual investors.
The stock market from time to time experiences significant price and trading volume fluctuations that are unrelated to the operating performance of particular companies. These broad market fluctuations may cause the market price and trading volume of our common stock to decrease. In addition, the market price and trading volume of our common stock is often highly volatile.
Factors that may cause the market price and volume of our common stock to decrease include, among other things:
•the impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. and global economies;
•adverse results or delays in our clinical trials, including as a result of COVID-19;
•fluctuations in our results of operations;
•timing and announcements of our technological innovations or new products or those of our competitors;
•developments concerning any strategic alliances or acquisitions we may enter into;
•announcements of FDA non-approval of our products, or delays in the FDA or other foreign regulatory review processes or actions, including the deferral of action on the BLA for eflapegrastim due to the inability to conduct an inspection of the manufacturing facility citing COVID-19 related travel restrictions;
•changes in recommendations or guidelines of government agencies or other third parties regarding the use of our products;
•adverse actions taken by regulatory agencies with respect to our drug products, clinical trials, manufacturing processes or sales and marketing activities;
•concerns about our in-development products being reimbursed at requisite levels in the future;
•any lawsuit involving us or our products;
•developments with respect to our patents and proprietary rights;
•public concern as to the safety of products developed by us or others;
•regulatory developments in the U.S. and in foreign countries;
•changes in stock market analyst recommendations regarding our common stock or lack of analyst coverage;
•failure of our results of operations to meet the expectations of stock market analysts and investors;
•sales of our common stock by our executive officers, directors and significant stockholders or sales of substantial amounts of our common stock generally; and
•loss of any of our key scientific or management personnel.
Also, certain dilutive securities such as warrants can be used as hedging tools which may increase volatility in our stock and cause a price decline. While a decrease in market price could result in direct economic loss for an individual investor, low trading volume could limit an individual investor’s ability to sell our common stock, which could result in substantial economic loss as well. From January 1, 2021 through March 10, 2022, the closing price of our common stock ranged between $0.63 and $4.45, and the daily trading volume was as high as 36.5 million shares and as low as 0.8 million shares.
Following periods of volatility in the market price of a company’s securities, a securities class action litigation may be instituted against that company. Regardless of their merit, these types of lawsuits generally result in substantial legal fees and management’s attention and resources being diverted from the operations of a business.
We have not been in compliance with the requirements of the NASDAQ Stock Market for continued listing and if NASDAQ does not concur that we have adequately remedied our non-compliance, our common stock may be delisted from trading on NASDAQ, which could have a material adverse effect on us and our shareholders.
On March 10, 2022, we received notice from The NASDAQ Stock Market (“Nasdaq”) that, because the closing bid price for the Company's common stock has fallen below $1.00 per share for 30 consecutive business days, the Company no longer complies with the minimum bid price requirement for continued listing on the Nasdaq Global Market.
Nasdaq's notice has no immediate effect on the listing of the Company's common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market. Pursuant to Nasdaq Marketplace Rule 5810(c)(3)(A), the Company has been provided an initial compliance period of 180 calendar days, or until September 6, 2022, to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. To regain compliance, the closing bid price of the Company's common stock must meet or exceed $1.00 per share for a minimum of 10 consecutive business days prior to September 6, 2022.
If the Company does not regain compliance by September 6, 2022, the Company may be eligible for an additional grace period if it applies to transfer the listing of its common stock to the Nasdaq Capital Market. To qualify, the Company would be required to meet the continued listing requirement for market value of publicly held shares and all other initial listing standards for the Nasdaq Capital Market, with the exception of the minimum bid price requirement, and provide written notice of its intention to cure the minimum bid price deficiency during the second compliance period by effecting a reverse stock split if necessary. If the Nasdaq staff determines that the Company will not be able to cure the deficiency, or if the Company is otherwise not eligible for such additional compliance period, Nasdaq will provide notice that the Company's common stock will be subject to delisting. The Company would have the right to appeal a determination to delist its common stock, and the common stock would remain listed on the Nasdaq Global Market until the completion of the appeal process.
Provisions of our charter, and bylaws may make it more difficult for someone to acquire control of us or replace current management even if doing so would benefit our stockholders, which may lower the price an acquirer or investor would pay for our stock.
Provisions of our certificate of incorporation and bylaws, both as amended, may make it more difficult for someone to acquire control of us or replace our current management. These provisions include:
•the ability of our Board of Directors to amend our bylaws without stockholder approval;
•the inability of stockholders to call special meetings;
•the ability of members of the Board of Directors to fill vacancies on the Board of Directors;
•the inability of stockholders to act by written consent, unless such consent is unanimous; and
•the establishment of advance notice requirements for the nomination of candidates for election to our Board of Directors or for proposing matters that can be acted on by stockholders at stockholder meetings.
These provisions may make it more difficult for stockholders to take certain corporate actions and could delay, discourage or prevent someone from acquiring our business or replacing our current management, even if doing so would benefit our stockholders. These provisions could limit the price that certain investors might be willing to pay for shares of our common stock.
Risks Relating to Our Intellectual Property
From time to time we may need to in-license patents and proprietary technologies from third parties, which may be difficult or expensive to obtain.
We may need to obtain licenses to patents and other proprietary rights held by third parties to successfully develop, manufacture and market our drug products. As an example, it may be necessary to use a third party’s proprietary technology to reformulate one of our drug products in order to improve upon the capabilities of the drug product. If we are unable to timely obtain these licenses on reasonable terms, or at all, our ability to commercially exploit our drug products may be inhibited or prevented.
If we are unable to adequately protect our technology or enforce our patent rights, our business could suffer.
Our success with the drug products that we develop will depend, in part, on our ability and the ability of our licensors to obtain and maintain patent protection for these products. We currently have a number of U.S. and foreign patents issued and pending, however, we primarily rely on patent rights licensed from others. Our license agreements generally give us the right and/or obligation to maintain and enforce the subject patents. We may not receive patents for any of our pending patent applications or any patent applications we may file in the future. If our pending and future patent applications are not allowed
or, if allowed and issued into patents, if such patents and the patents we have licensed are not upheld in a court of law, our ability to competitively exploit our drug products would be substantially harmed. Also, such patents may or may not provide competitive advantages for their respective products or they may be challenged or circumvented by our competitors, in which case our ability to commercially exploit these products may be diminished.
The patent positions of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies can be highly uncertain and involve complex legal and factual questions. No consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in pharmaceutical and biotechnology patents has emerged to date in the U.S. The laws of many countries may not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as U.S. laws, and those countries may lack adequate rules and procedures for defending our intellectual property rights. Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on all our products or product candidates throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions not covered by any of our patent claims or other intellectual property rights.
Changes in either patent laws or in interpretations of patent laws in the U.S. and other countries may diminish the value of our intellectual property. We do not know whether any of our patent applications will result in the issuance of any patents, and we cannot predict the breadth of claims that may be allowed in our patent applications or in the patent applications we license from others.
Intellectual property rights do not necessarily address all potential threats.
The degree of future protection for our proprietary rights is uncertain because legal means afford only limited protection and may not adequately protect our rights or permit us to gain or keep our competitive advantage. For example:
•in certain jurisdictions, we or our licensors might not have been the first to make the inventions covered by each of our or our licensors’ pending patent applications and issued patents, and we may have to participate in expensive and protracted interference proceedings to determine priority of invention;
•we or our licensors might not have been the first to file patent applications for these inventions;
•others may independently develop similar or alternative product candidates or duplicate any of our or our licensors’ product candidates;
•our or our licensors’ pending patent applications may not result in issued patents;
•our or our licensors’ issued patents may not provide a basis for commercially viable products or may not provide us with any competitive advantages or may be challenged by third parties;
•others may design around our or our licensors’ patent claims to produce competitive products that fall outside the scope of our or our licensors’ patents;
•we may not develop or in-license additional patentable proprietary technologies related to our product candidates; or
•the patents of others may prevent us from marketing one or more of our product candidates for one or more indications that may be valuable to our business strategy.
An issued patent does not guarantee us the right to practice the patented technology or commercialize the patented product. Third parties may have blocking patents that could be used to prevent us from commercializing our patented products and practicing our patented technology. Patents issued to us and our licensors and those that may be issued in the future to us and our licensors may be challenged, invalidated or circumvented, which could limit our ability to prevent competitors from marketing related product candidates or could limit the length of the term of patent protection of our product candidates. Our competitors may independently develop similar technologies. In addition, because of the extensive time required for development, testing and regulatory review of a potential product, it is possible that, before any of our product candidates can be commercialized, any related patent may expire or remain in force for only a short period following commercialization, thereby reducing any advantage of the patent.
If we fail to comply with our obligations in the agreements under which we license intellectual property rights from third parties or otherwise experience disruptions to our business relationships with our licensors, we could lose intellectual property rights that are important to our business.
We are a party to exclusive license agreements with our partners and may need to obtain additional licenses from others to advance our research and development activities or allow the commercialization of our current product candidates and future product candidates we may identify and pursue. Our license agreements may impose, and we expect that future license agreements could impose various requirements on us, such as obligations related to development, diligence and commercialization, among others. In spite of our efforts, our licensors might conclude that we have materially breached our
obligations under such license agreements and might therefore terminate the license agreements, thereby removing or limiting our ability to develop and commercialize products and technology covered by these license agreements. If these in-licenses are terminated, or if the underlying patents fail to provide the intended exclusivity, competitors or other third parties would have the freedom to seek regulatory approval of, and to market, products identical to ours and we may be required to cease our development and commercialization of our current product candidates or other product candidates that we may identify. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our competitive position, business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.
Moreover, disputes may arise regarding intellectual property subject to a licensing agreement, including:
•the scope of rights granted under the license agreement and other interpretation-related issues;
•the extent to which our product candidates, technology and processes infringe on intellectual property of the licensor that is not subject to the licensing agreement;
•the sublicensing of patent and other rights under our collaborative development relationships;
•our diligence obligations under the license agreement and what activities satisfy those diligence obligations;
•the inventorship and ownership of inventions and know-how resulting from the joint creation or use of intellectual property by our licensors and us and our partners; and
•the priority of invention of patented technology.
In addition, the agreements under which we currently license intellectual property or technology from third parties are complex, and certain provisions in such agreements may be susceptible to multiple interpretations. The resolution of any contract interpretation disagreement that may arise could narrow what we believe to be the scope of our rights to the relevant intellectual property or technology, or increase what we believe to be our financial or other obligations under the relevant agreement, either of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects. Moreover, if disputes over intellectual property that we have licensed prevent or impair our ability to maintain our current licensing arrangements on commercially acceptable terms, we may be unable to successfully develop and commercialize the affected product candidates, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions, results of operations, and prospects.
If we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our trade secrets, the value of our technology could be materially adversely affected and our business would be harmed.
We also rely on trade secret protection and contractual protections for our unpatented and proprietary drug compounds. Trade secrets are difficult to protect. While we enter into confidentiality agreements with our employees, consultants and others, these agreements may not successfully protect our trade secrets or other confidential and proprietary information. It is possible that these agreements will be breached, or that they will not be enforceable in every instance, and that we will not have adequate remedies for any such breach. Likewise, although we conduct periodic trade secret audits of certain partners, vendors and contract manufacturers, these trade secret audits may not protect our trade secrets or other confidential and proprietary information. It is possible that despite having certain trade secret audit security measures in place, trade secrets or other confidential and proprietary information may still be leaked or disclosed to a third party. It is also possible that our trade secrets will become known or independently developed by our competitors.
We also rely on trademarks to protect the names of our products. These trademarks may be challenged by others. If we enforce our trademarks against third parties, such enforcement proceedings may be expensive. Some of our trademarks are owned by, or assignable to, our licensors and, upon expiration or termination of the applicable license agreements, we may no longer be able to use these trademarks. If we are unable to adequately protect our technology, trade secrets or proprietary know-how, or enforce our patents and trademarks, our business, financial condition and prospects could suffer.
We may not be able to protect our intellectual property rights throughout the world.
Filing, prosecuting and defending patents on our product candidates in all countries throughout the world would be prohibitively expensive, and our intellectual property rights in some countries outside the United States can be less extensive than those in the United States.
In addition, the laws of some foreign countries do not protect intellectual property rights to the same extent as federal and state laws in the United States. Consequently, we may not be able to prevent third parties from practicing our inventions in all
countries outside the United States, or from selling or importing products made using our inventions in and into the United States or other jurisdictions. Competitors may use our technologies in jurisdictions where we have not obtained patent protection to develop their own products and may also export infringing products to territories where we have patent protection, but enforcement is not as strong as that in the United States. These products may compete with our products and our patents or other intellectual property rights may not be effective or sufficient to prevent them from competing.
Many companies have encountered significant problems in protecting and defending intellectual property rights in foreign jurisdictions. The legal systems of certain countries, particularly certain developing countries, do not favor the enforcement of patents, trade secrets, and other intellectual property protection, particularly those relating to biotechnology products, which could make it difficult for us to stop the infringement of our patents or marketing of competing products in violation of our proprietary rights generally. Proceedings to enforce our patent rights in foreign jurisdictions, whether or not successful, could result in substantial costs and divert our efforts and attention from other aspects of our business, could put our patents at risk of being invalidated or interpreted narrowly and our patent applications at risk of not issuing and could provoke third parties to assert claims against us. We may not prevail in any lawsuits that we initiate and the damages or other remedies awarded, if any, may not be commercially meaningful. Accordingly, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights around the world may be inadequate to obtain a significant commercial advantage from the intellectual property that we develop or license.
Patent terms may be inadequate to protect our competitive position on our product candidates for an adequate amount of time.
Patents have a limited lifespan. In the United States, if all maintenance fees are timely paid, the natural expiration of a patent is generally 20 years from its earliest U.S. non-provisional filing date. Various extensions may be available, but the life of a patent, and the protection it affords, is limited. Even if patents covering our product candidates are obtained, once the patent life has expired, we may be open to competition from competitive products, including generics or biosimilars. Given the amount of time required for the development, testing and regulatory review of new product candidates, patents protecting such candidates might expire before or shortly after such candidates are commercialized. As a result, our owned and licensed patent portfolio may not provide us with sufficient rights to exclude others from commercializing products similar or identical to ours.
Changes in U.S. patent law could diminish the value of patents in general, thereby impairing our ability to protect our products.
Changes in either the patent laws or interpretation of the patent laws in the United States could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of patent applications and the enforcement or defense of issued patents. Assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, prior to March 2013, in the United States, the first to invent the claimed invention was entitled to the patent, while outside the United States, the first to file a patent application was entitled to the patent. After March 2013, under the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, or the America Invents Act, enacted in September 2011, the United States transitioned to a first inventor to file system in which, assuming that other requirements for patentability are met, the first inventor to file a patent application will be entitled to the patent on an invention regardless of whether a third party was the first to invent the claimed invention. A third party that files a patent application in the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) after March 2013, but before us could therefore be awarded a patent covering an invention of ours even if we had made the invention before it was made by such third party. This will require us to be cognizant of the time from invention to filing of a patent application. Since patent applications in the United States and most other countries are confidential for a period of time after filing or until issuance, we cannot be certain that we or our licensors were the first to either (i) file any patent application related to our product candidates or (ii) invent any of the inventions claimed in our or our licensor’s patents or patent applications.
The America Invents Act also includes a number of significant changes that affect the way patent applications will be prosecuted and also may affect patent litigation. These include allowing third party submission of prior art to the USPTO during patent prosecution and additional procedures to attack the validity of a patent by USPTO administered post-grant proceedings, including post-grant review, inter partes review, and derivation proceedings. Because of a lower evidentiary standard in USPTO proceedings compared to the evidentiary standard in United States federal courts necessary to invalidate a patent claim, a third party could potentially provide evidence in a USPTO proceeding sufficient for the USPTO to hold a claim invalid even though the same evidence would be insufficient to invalidate the claim if first presented in a district court action. Accordingly, a third party may attempt to use the USPTO procedures to invalidate our patent claims that would not have been invalidated if first challenged by the third party as a defendant in a district court action. Therefore, the America Invents Act and its implementation could increase the uncertainties and costs surrounding the prosecution of our owned or in-licensed patent applications and the enforcement or defense of our owned or in-licensed issued patents, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations, and prospects.
In addition, the patent positions of companies in the development and commercialization of pharmaceuticals are particularly uncertain. Recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings have narrowed the scope of patent protection available in certain circumstances and weakened the rights of patent owners in certain situations. This combination of events has created uncertainty with respect to the validity and enforceability of patents, once obtained. Depending on future actions by the U.S. Congress, the federal courts, and the USPTO, the laws and regulations governing patents could change in unpredictable ways that could have a material adverse effect on our existing patent portfolio and our ability to protect and enforce our intellectual property in the future.
Obtaining and maintaining our patent protection depends on compliance with various procedural, document submission, fee payment and other requirements imposed by governmental patent agencies, and our patent protection could be reduced or eliminated for non-compliance with these requirements.
Periodic maintenance fees, renewal fees, annuity fees and various other governmental fees on patents and/or applications will be due to be paid to the USPTO and various governmental patent agencies outside of the United States in several stages over the lifetime of the patents and/or applications. We have systems in place to remind us when the fees are due, and we employ an outside firm to automatically pay these fees to both US and non-U.S agencies and we rely on our outside counsel to verify and confirm payment of these fees. The USPTO and various non-U.S. governmental patent agencies require compliance with a number of procedural, documentary, fee payment, and other similar provisions during the patent application process. We employ reputable law firms and other professionals to help us comply, and in many cases, an inadvertent lapse can be cured by payment of a late fee or by other means in accordance with the applicable rules. However, there are situations in which non-compliance can result in abandonment or lapse of the patent or patent application, resulting in partial or complete loss of patent rights in the relevant jurisdiction. In such an event, our competitors might be able to enter the market and this circumstance would have a material adverse effect on our business.
Intellectual property rights are complex and uncertain and therefore may subject us to infringement claims.
The patent positions related to our drug products are inherently uncertain and involve complex legal and factual issues. We believe that there is significant litigation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry regarding patent and other intellectual property rights. A patent does not provide the patent holder with freedom to operate in a way that infringes the patent rights of others. We may be accused of patent infringement at any time. The coverage of patents is subject to interpretation by the courts, and the interpretation is not always uniform. If we are sued for patent infringement, we would need to demonstrate that our products or methods do not infringe the patent claims of the relevant patent and/or that the patent claims are invalid or unenforceable, and we may not be able to do this. Proving invalidity, in particular, is difficult since it requires a showing of clear and convincing evidence to overcome the presumption of validity enjoyed by issued patents in the U.S.
Although we are not aware of any infringement by any of our drug products of any valid patent rights of any third party, there may be third party patents or other intellectual property rights, including trademarks and copyrights, relevant to our drug products of which we are not aware. Third parties may assert patent or other intellectual property infringement claims against us, or our licensors and collaborators, with products. Any claims that might be brought against us relating to infringement of patents may cause us to incur significant expenses and, if successfully asserted against us, may cause us to pay substantial damages and result in the loss of our use of the intellectual property that is critical to our business strategy.
In the event that we or our partners are found to infringe any valid claim of a patent held by a third party, we may, among other things, be required to:
•pay damages, including up to treble damages and the other party’s attorneys’ fees, which may be substantial;
•cease the development, manufacture, use and sale of our products that infringe the patent rights of others through a court-imposed sanction such as an injunction;
•expend significant resources to redesign our products so they do not infringe others’ patent rights, which may not be possible;
•discontinue manufacturing or other processes incorporating infringing technology; or
•obtain licenses to the infringed intellectual property, which may not be available to us on acceptable terms, or at all.
We may be subject to claims that our employees, consultants or independent contractors have wrongfully used or disclosed confidential information of third parties or that our employees have wrongfully used or disclosed alleged trade secrets of their former employers.
As is common in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry, we employ individuals who were previously employed at universities or other biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies, including our competitors or potential competitors. Although we try to ensure that our employees, consultants and independent contractors do not use the proprietary information or know-how of others in their work for us, we may be subject to claims that we or our employees, consultants or independent contractors have inadvertently or otherwise used or disclosed intellectual property, including trade secrets or other proprietary information, of any of our employee’s former employer or other third parties. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these claims. If we fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights or personnel, which could adversely impact our business. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees.
In addition, while we require our employees and contractors who may be involved in the conception or development of intellectual property to execute agreements assigning such intellectual property to us, we may be unsuccessful in executing such an agreement with each party who, in fact, conceives or develops intellectual property that we regard as our own. The assignment of intellectual property rights may not be self-executing or the assignment agreements may be breached, and we may be forced to bring claims against third parties, or defend claims that they may bring against us, to determine the ownership of what we regard as our intellectual property.
We may be involved in additional lawsuits to defend or enforce our patents, which could be expensive, time-consuming and unsuccessful.
Competitors may infringe upon our patents. To counter infringement or unauthorized use, we may be required to file infringement claims, which can be expensive and time-consuming. In addition, in an infringement proceeding, a court may decide that one or more of our patents is not valid or is unenforceable, or may refuse to stop the other party from using the technology at issue on the grounds that our patents do not cover the technology in question. An adverse result in any litigation or defense proceedings could put one or more of our patents at risk of being invalidated, held unenforceable, or interpreted narrowly and could put our patent applications at risk of not issuing. Defense of these claims, regardless of their merit, would involve substantial litigation expense and would be a substantial diversion of employee resources from our business.
Interference or derivation proceedings provoked by third parties or brought by the USPTO may be necessary to determine the priority of inventions with respect to our patents or patent applications. An unfavorable outcome could require us to cease using the related technology or to attempt to license rights to it from the prevailing party. Our business could be harmed if the prevailing party does not offer us a license on commercially reasonable terms. Litigation or interference proceedings may fail, even if successful, may result in substantial costs and distract our management and other employees. We may not be able to prevent misappropriation of our trade secrets or confidential information, particularly in countries where the laws may not protect those rights as fully as in the U.S. or in Europe.
Furthermore, because of the substantial amount of discovery that could be required in connection with intellectual property litigation, there is a risk that some of our confidential information could be compromised by disclosure during this type of litigation. In addition, there could be public announcements of the results of hearings, motions or other interim proceedings or developments. If securities analysts or investors perceive these results to be negative, it could have a substantial adverse effect on our stock price.
We may be subject to claims challenging the inventorship of our patents and other intellectual property.
We or our licensors may be subject to claims that former employees, collaborators or other third parties have an interest in our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets, or other intellectual property as an inventor or co-inventor. For example, we or our licensors may have inventorship disputes arise from conflicting obligations of employees, consultants or others who are involved in developing our product candidates. Litigation may be necessary to defend against these and other claims challenging inventorship or our or our licensors’ ownership of our owned or in-licensed patents, trade secrets or other intellectual property. If we or our licensors fail in defending any such claims, in addition to paying monetary damages, we may lose valuable intellectual property rights, such as exclusive ownership of, or right to use, intellectual property that is important to our product candidates. Even if we are successful in defending against such claims, litigation could result in substantial costs and be a distraction to management and other employees. Any of the foregoing could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operations and prospects.
Some intellectual property that we have in-licensed may have been discovered through government funded programs and thus may be subject to federal regulations such as “march-in” rights, certain reporting requirements and a preference for U.S.-based companies. Compliance with such regulations may limit our exclusive rights, and limit our ability to contract with non-U.S. manufacturers.
Some of the intellectual property rights we have licensed are generated through the use of U.S. government funding and are therefore subject to certain federal regulations. As a result, the U.S. government may have certain rights to intellectual property embodied in our current or future product candidates pursuant to the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, or Bayh-Dole Act, and implementing regulations. These U.S. government rights in certain inventions developed under a government-funded program include a non-exclusive, non-transferable, irrevocable worldwide license to use inventions for any governmental purpose. In addition, the U.S. government has the right to require us or our licensors to grant exclusive, partially exclusive, or non-exclusive licenses to any of these inventions to a third party if it determines that: (i) adequate steps have not been taken to commercialize the invention; (ii) government action is necessary to meet public health or safety needs; or (iii) government action is necessary to meet requirements for public use under federal regulations (also referred to as “march-in rights”). The U.S. government also has the right to take title to these inventions if we, or the applicable licensor, fail to disclose the invention to the government and fail to file an application to register the intellectual property within specified time limits. These time limits have recently been changed by regulation, and may change in the future. Intellectual property generated under a government funded program is also subject to certain reporting requirements, compliance with which may require us or the applicable licensor to expend substantial resources. In addition, the U.S. government requires that any products embodying the subject invention or produced through the use of the subject invention be manufactured substantially in the United States. The manufacturing preference requirement can be waived if the owner of the intellectual property can show that reasonable but unsuccessful efforts have been made to grant licenses on similar terms to potential licensees that would be likely to manufacture substantially in the United States or that under the circumstances domestic manufacture is not commercially feasible. This preference for U.S. manufacturers may limit our ability to contract with non-U.S. product manufacturers for products covered by such intellectual property. To the extent any of our current or future intellectual property is generated through the use of U.S. government funding, the provisions of the Bayh-Dole Act may similarly apply.
Data breaches and cyber-attacks could compromise our intellectual property or other sensitive information and cause significant damage to our business, reputational harm and financial loss.
In the ordinary course of our business, we collect, maintain and transmit sensitive data on our networks and systems, including our intellectual property and proprietary or confidential business information (such as research data and personal information) and confidential information with respect to our customers, clinical trial patients and our business partners. We have also outsourced significant elements of our information technology infrastructure and, as a result, third parties may or could have access to our confidential information and personal data. The secure maintenance of this information is critical to our business and reputation. We believe that companies have been increasingly subject to a wide variety of security incidents, cyber-attacks and other attempts to gain unauthorized access and unintentional breaches. These threats can come from a variety of sources, ranging in sophistication from an individual hacker to a state-sponsored attack and motive (including corporate espionage). Cyber threats may be generic, or they may be custom-crafted against our information systems. Our network and storage applications and those of our vendors may be subject to unauthorized access by hackers or information security breaches due to operator error, malfeasance or other system disruptions. It is often difficult to anticipate or immediately detect such incidents and the damage caused by such incidents, particularly for cyber incidents such as advanced persistent threats. These data breaches and any unauthorized access or disclosure of our information or intellectual property could compromise our intellectual property and expose sensitive business information. A data security breach could also lead to public exposure of personal information of our clinical trial patients, customers and others. Cyber-attacks and information security breaches could cause us to incur significant remediation costs, result in product development delays, disrupt key business operations and divert attention of management and key information technology resources. Our network security and data recovery measures and those of our vendors may not be able to detect or prevent every attempted breach and may not permit us to respond effectively to every breach. These incidents could also subject us to liability, expose us to significant expense and cause significant harm to our reputation and business. Reputational harm resulting from a significant cyber incident may cause unquantifiable damage to our established goodwill. Moreover, as cyber incidents continue to evolve, we will likely be required to expend additional resources to enhance our security posture and cybersecurity defenses or to investigate and remediate any vulnerability to or consequences of cyber incidents. Our insurance coverage may not be sufficient to prevent or recover from cyberattacks, including coverage of applicable resulting losses arising from the incident.
Further, each foreign jurisdiction and U.S. state in which we operate may have laws governing how we must respond to a cyber incident that results in the unauthorized access, disclosure, or loss of personal information. Additionally, new laws and regulations governing data privacy and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information, including recent California legislation providing for a private right of action, pose increasingly complex compliance challenges and could potentially elevate our costs over time. As legislation continues to develop and cyber incidents continue to evolve, we will likely be required to expend significant resources to continue to modify or enhance our protective measures to comply with such legislation and to detect, investigate and remediate vulnerabilities to cyber incidents. Any failure by us to comply with such laws and regulations could result in reputational harm, loss of goodwill, penalties, liabilities and/or mandated changes in our business practices.
General Risk Factors
Our failure to establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting could result in material misstatements in our financial statements, our failure to meet our reporting obligations and cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information, which in turn could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline.
The results of our periodic management evaluations regarding the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting are required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Any failure to maintain enhanced monitoring controls and improved detection and communication of financial misstatements across all levels of the organization could result in (i) material weaknesses, (ii) material misstatements in our financial statements, requiring restatements of our previously-filed financial statements, and (iii) cause us to fail to meet our timely reporting and debt compliance obligations. These outcomes could cause us to lose public confidence, and could cause the trading price of our common stock to decline. For further information regarding our controls and procedures, see Item 9A. Controls and Procedures.
Changes in our effective income tax rate could adversely affect our profitability. Our ability to utilize our net operating loss carryforwards and certain other tax attributes may be limited.
We are subject to federal and state income taxes in the U.S. and our tax liabilities are dependent upon the distribution of income among these different jurisdictions. Various factors may have significant favorable or unfavorable effects on our effective income tax rate, and could have an impact on our profitability. These factors include, but are not limited to:
•interpretations of existing tax laws;
•the accounting for stock options and other share-based compensation;
•changes in tax laws and rates;
•future levels of research and development spending;
•changes in accounting standards;
•changes in the mix of earnings in the various tax jurisdictions in which we operate;
•the outcome of examinations by the Internal Revenue Service and tax regulators in other jurisdictions;
•the accuracy of our estimates for unrecognized tax benefits;
•realization of deferred tax assets; and
•changes in overall levels of pre-tax earnings.
Under Sections 382 and 383 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, if a corporation undergoes an “ownership change” (generally defined as a greater than 50% change (by value) in its equity ownership over a three-year period), the corporation’s ability to use its pre-ownership change net operating loss carryforwards and other pre-ownership change tax attributes to offset its post-change income may be limited. As of December 31, 2021 we have U.S. net operating loss carryforwards of approximately $746.6 million. As a result of our public offerings of common stock, we may have triggered an “ownership change.” We may also experience ownership changes in the future as a result of subsequent shifts in our stock ownership. Accordingly, if we earn net taxable income, our ability to use our pre-ownership change net operating loss carryforwards to offset U.S. federal taxable income may be subject to limitations, which could potentially result in increased future tax liability to us. If we become profitable in the future, our ability to use net operating loss carryforwards and other tax attributes to offset future taxable income or reduce taxes may be subject to limitations, and we cannot assure what, if any, the benefit related to our net operating loss carryforwards will be in the future.
Natural disasters, war and other events could adversely affect our future revenues and operating income.
Natural disasters, including the impacts of climate change, hurricanes, tornadoes, windstorms, fires, earthquakes and floods and other extreme weather events, global health pandemics, war, terrorism, labor disruptions and international conflicts, and actions taken by the United States and other governments or by our customers or suppliers in response to such events, could cause significant economic disruption and political and social instability in the United States and areas outside of the United States in which we operate. These events could result in decreased demand for our products, adversely affect our manufacturing and distribution capabilities, or increase the costs for or cause interruptions in the supply of materials from our suppliers.
We are subject to the risks of securities and related litigation, which may expose us to substantial liabilities and could seriously harm our business.
We may be subject to the risk of securities litigation and derivative actions from time to time as a result of being publicly traded, including the remaining unresolved actions set forth in Item 3. Legal Proceedings. There can be no assurance that any settlement or liabilities in such actions or any future lawsuits or claims against us would be covered or partially covered by our insurance policies, which could have a material adverse effect on our earnings in one or more periods. While we and our Board of Directors deny the allegations of wrongdoing against us in the unresolved actions initiated against us, there can be no assurance as to the ultimate outcome or timing of their resolutions. In addition to the potential costs and liabilities, securities litigation could divert management’s attention and resources, which could seriously harm our business.
Global, market and economic conditions may negatively impact our business, financial condition and share price.
Concerns over inflation, geopolitical issues, the U.S. financial markets, foreign exchange rates, capital and exchange controls, unstable global credit markets and financial conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic, have led to periods of significant economic instability, declines in consumer confidence and discretionary spending, diminished expectations for the global economy and expectations of slower global economic growth going forward, and increased unemployment rates. Our general business strategy may be adversely affected by any such economic downturns, volatile business environments and continued unstable or unpredictable economic and market conditions. If these conditions continue to deteriorate or do not improve, it may make any necessary debt or equity financing more difficult to complete, more costly and more dilutive. In addition, there is a risk that one or more of our current or future service providers, manufacturers, suppliers and other partners could be negatively affected by difficult economic times, which could adversely affect our ability to attain our operating goals on schedule and on budget or meet our business and financial objectives.
In addition, we face several risks associated with international business and are subject to global events beyond our control, including war, public health crises, such as pandemics and epidemics, trade disputes, economic sanctions, trade wars and their collateral impacts and other international events. Any of these changes could have a material adverse effect on our reputation, business, financial condition or results of operations. There may be changes to our business if there is instability, disruption or destruction in a significant geographic region, regardless of cause, including war, terrorism, riot, civil insurrection or social unrest; and natural or man-made disasters, including famine, flood, fire, earthquake, storm or disease. In February 2022, armed conflict escalated between Russia and Ukraine. The sanctions announced by the U.S. and other countries, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine against Russia to date include restrictions on selling or importing goods, services or technology in or from affected regions and travel bans and asset freezes impacting connected individuals and political, military, business and financial organizations in Russia. The U.S. and other countries could impose wider sanctions and take other actions should the conflict further escalate. It is not possible to predict the broader consequences of this conflict, which could include further sanctions, embargoes, regional instability, geopolitical shifts and adverse effects on macroeconomic conditions, currency exchange rates and financial markets, all of which could impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.